Beetlejuice: Season 2: The Sleeper Saga
by jgames
Summary: It's Lydia's birthday and the gang decides to throw her a surprise party. Suddenly the ground under her house begins to shake and The Seer appears and tells them that an evil and powerful magician has escaped and is searching for "The Sleeper". PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.
1. Episode 21: Awakening

**Beetlejuice**

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

_Disclaimer: First of all, I do not own Beetlejuice or the characters associated with it. This is, however a brand new story and is not based on nether the movie or the cartoon show. So please, bear with me as I take you on another adventure of Lidia and Beetlejuice. Read and Review please._

**Episode 21: Awakening**

Some time passed by since the war with the "Dark Queen" Naria and her sand creatures. The residents of the Neitherworld had rebuilt their civilization, electing town mayors and appointing a leader to guide them. Incorporating Lydia's description of a democracy into their government and living under the same basic rights as the Outerworld.

Lydia was on her way walking home from grocery shopping with Delia as a means to allow them to bond together as stepmother and stepdaughter, Lydia still not wanting to refer to Delia as her 'mother' in any sense. Ben peeked out of the closest window in the Deetz's house watching for them to drive up. The house had all of its lights turned off as Ben saw the Ford wagon drive near the house. "Here she comes. Everyone get ready." He loudly whispered to the darkness behind him and quickly moved to hide behind something. Lydia moved closer to the door unsuspecting and turned the door knob to the front door of her house. The door slowly swung open and she was greeted by a faint darkness. She flipped on the lights to the main entryway and was startled when her friends and father jumped out of their hiding places and shouted, "Surprise. Happy Birthday." It was her first birthday in Peaceful Pines, Connecticut and she was indeed surprised by her friends for this gesture. She looked around at her new surroundings, decorated with party streamers and confetti. There was a little table in the middle of the entrance room with a small white cake with seventeen candles that her father began lighting with a lighter as the rest of them began singing "Happy birthday to you."

Meanwhile, in the Neitherworld back where the temporary spirit gate had crumbled, a loud heartbeat could be heard from underneath the floor of the temple that used to have the golden statues that aimed silver arrows at the doorway. The heartbeat began pulsing louder and louder with the nine tiles in the center of the temple floor pulsing with an eerie red light at the same rhythm. As the light intensified, the stone tiles began to crack and disintegrate. Underneath the tiles was revealed a cage. And from within the cage a pair of crimson red eyes shone with a harsh voice laughing maniacally and praising in a thick British accent, "At last, I am free. Free to seek my revenge on my brethren who locked me away."

In Lydia's house, everyone was having a wonderful time enjoying the birthday party. Lydia had opened up her presents, receiving some very thoughtful gifts from everyone. The cake was already mostly devoured and even the pizza never survived the first ten minutes. Suddenly, the house began shaking around, dropping photos off of the walls and tables. The paper plates shifted around and the plastic ware fell to the wooden floor below. The quake only lasted for three seconds but still startled all in the room. The strange thing was that there was no aftershock. Only Ben seemed to know what had gone on and he gazed back toward Lydia's room whispering under his breath, "That's impossible." He then turned back to his companion and informed her, "Lyds, I think that this shaking is coming from the Neitherworld." Lydia widened her eyes with both fear and wonder, "Is that even possible?" she whispered. "I don't know." Beetlejuice answered with the same fear on his face.

Back in the Neitherworld, The Seer was startled from his sleep. A feeling that he hadn't felt in a long time crawled down his spine. "No." He whispered to himself as he looked out of the window of his house in the Mountains of Sorrow to the west of the castle. He felt his solitude come crashing down as a small figure came racing toward him at incredible speeds. "The Black Mage." He said, referring to him before turning to grab a nearby staff and aiming it at the incoming figure. He then thought to himself, "I must tell Lydia. We must find..." His thoughts were cut off the moment that the figure crashed through his brick wall, forcefully throwing The Seer into the back wall. "Ah, brother." The Black Mage said addressing The Seer. "You lost the right to call me that nearly two thousand years ago." The Seer retorted aiming his staff back toward The Black Mage. The man finally stepped into a beam of light for the aged man to see. He indeed wore a black sorcerer's cloak with a hood twice the size of his head. He wore upon his pale colored face, a goatee that encircled his mouth and covered not more than his chin. He looked only in his mid sixties and well built for even that. His outfit under the robe looked like a dark prince. Black medieval royal garb with gold trim around the edges. His boots were also well cared for letting The Seer know that he took great pride in his appearance. His black hair was slicked back with hardly any flaws in its meticulous combing. His piercing gray-blue eyes never left its target as he lifted his right hand to aim his palm at The Seer. He decorated his fingers with one fine jeweled ring on each finger and even one on his thumb. The jewels being large in size and various in color, made his hand look like it harnessed an entire rainbow.

He then condensed air in the palm of his hand and gripped it as if it was tangible. "You know this spell don't you, brother?" He asked The Seer, who growled at him. "That is a simple air compression spell, but if you release it too rapidly and apply a spark, it turns into a flaming bomb. I know of your spells. I've studied many while you were imprisoned." The Black Mage smiled wickedly before responding, "Very good dear brother." A tiny spark ignited in the center of the compressed air and the entire thing became an inferno of flames, rapidly expanding to engulf The Seer's entire cottage.

Back in the Outerworld, the party continues with Ben still turning his thoughts back to the mysterious rumblings that emanated from the Neitherworld. He wondered to himself about its origins and as to how something like this could leak across the dimensional boundaries. He then found himself wondering how he would even know about something like that. Before he could even begin to think about the answers to his questions, Delia placed her arm around Ben's shoulder and hung on him like she was drunk. "Hey, Ben. You should go back and enjoy the party. It's a real..." She never finished her sentence before she collapsed and fell asleep. "Uh, Mrs. Deetz?" Ben asked moments before he heard another "thud" from behind him. Apparently, Mr. Deetz was going through the same exact thing. "Dad?!" Lydia called out to him. "What happened?" Bertha asked in a worried tone. "He started acting like he was drunk and then passed out." Lydia explained. Suddenly, a dragon's gate opened up on one of the walls near her kitchen and out fell The Seer onto his back. The portal closed immediately after the old man collapsed to the wood floor below. "Seer!" Lydia called out when she saw him hit the ground. She went over to him to help him to his feet and asked, "Did you do this?" motioning to her sleeping parents. He grunted as he was hauled back to his feet and answered, "Yes, I cast a sleeping spell and a focus spell to direct it to only those two. The funny thing is, as living people fall under a sleeping spell it makes them kind of drunk as it isn't a natural sleep. They should be out for four hours at the most." Lydia led the ancient man over to the living room to set him down on a chair and allow him to rest himself. He looked around at his new surroundings and commented, "You have a very nice house." He then shook his head to bring himself back to the important matter at hand, "But that's not important right now." His expression then turned back cold and focused, fixing his gaze into Lydia's. "The Black Mage has awakened, and he's looking for The Sleeper." The girls and Ben were now thoroughly confused. "Who's 'The Sleeper'?" Bertha asked. "Who's 'The Black Mage'?" Claire asked immediately after. "Why is he looking for this 'Sleeper'?" Prudence asked directly after Claire's question.

The Seer nestled back into the chair to get himself comfortable before answering the questions, "Huh, the living have come a long way from straw beds stone chairs. This is comfortable." "Can you please focus here, old man?" Ben asked slightly frustrated. "I'm only twelve hundred and seventy three, young man." The Seer retorted. "My brethren." He then sighed. "The Sleeper?" Clair guessed. "The Black Mage?" Bertha added. "Both." The Seer answered. "We are three brothers of a great dragon warrior. The Sleeper is the code name for the youngest brother who fell under an eternal sleep ages ago. The Black Mage is my older brother named Grimnak, and my original name was Merlin." "Wait." Prudence stopped him. "Merlin as in, King Arthur's Merlin?" "Great piece of fiction isn't it?" The old man then responded with a smile. Prudence was about to respond until Lydia interrupted, "Focus here. What is this 'Grimnak' after?" Merlin then looked the girl straight in the eyes and said, "Revenge. A long time ago, The Sleeper and I defeated him during one of his 'conquer the world' schemes and sealed him away under the spirit gate temple, the site of the final battle with Naria." Ben thought back to that horrible battle and to the details that he remembered about the ruined temple. "I didn't see anything inside the temple." He then said. Merlin then turned to the boy and stated, "That's because he wasn't **in** the temple but sealed **under** it. The temple was built on top of an area long since lost called the Caverns of Sorrow. It was in thoes caverns that my brother and I tricked Grimnak to that very spot and sealed him inside a shimmering crystal. We then sealed the area from above by building and placing four centaur guard statues armed with enchanted silver arrows. The statues themselves were enchanted to fire the arrows incase of his escape. The temple was built around the statues to stave off suspicion of any kind." "Suspicion?" Lydia questioned. "You try and explain four centaur statues out in the middle of nowhere and not attract tourists." Merlin retorted. Lydia quickly tilted her head to her right side slightly and straightened it again to gesture the phrase 'good point'.

Merlin then began to look down to the floor of Lydia's house with sadness. "He didn't always be like that though." He said solemnly. "What happened?" Bertha asked with curiosity. "We three brothers used to be the best of friends. Grimnak mastering in sorcery and alchemy, The Sleeper mastering in the ways of combat with the sword and me utilizing the balance of nature with my elemental magic and ability to talk to the winds to predict the future." "You talk to the wind?" Ben said sarcastically. Lydia shot him a dirty look as Merlin looked at the boy with slight disgust at his incomplete 'fart' joke. "Don't you dare finish that one, Ben." Lydia growled. He grinned bashfully and chuckled at his failed attempt. Both Bertha and Prudence sat slightly confused as to what exactly he was going to say next while Claire folded her arms and slowly shook her head in disapproval. "So," Ben said while clearing his throat, "Why alchemy?" "Magic spells are a manipulation of the elements of nature that surround you. In other words, you can't cast a fire spell without a source of fire to work off of. Alchemy grants him the ability to create elements simply by combining two or more elements together. For instance, if I had a source of flame available, I could make it dance and change shape using magic, but if I needed an instant source of flame, there are two elemental sources available ever present in any given situation." He began to explain. "Air and electricity." Prudence deduced. Merlin pointed his finger at the tiny girl to acknowledge her deduction and literally point her correct. "By condensing air into a tiny space and releasing it rapidly, it creates a concussion wave. But, add a spark in the mix and..." He began. "And you have an instant back flash, or in this case, flare." Prudence concluded. Everyone gawked at her, astounded at her vast intellect and puzzle solving skills. "Now super condense the air and perform the same action." Merlin then asked her to visualize. Prudence thought about the scenario for three seconds before answering, "The concussion wave would be virtually like a heat bomb, incinerating everything in its path." "Wait, wait, wait." Lydia interrupted. "Naria, knew magic, and she threw fireballs at us every now and then." "Naria, had absorbed the abilities of many beings in the Neitherworld, home to many strange and forgotten creatures. Among those creatures were elementals, creatures literally born from a living element of nature. When Naria absorbed the powers of a fire elemental, she inherited the ability to create flames as often as she wanted." Merlin answered her. Lydia griped her chin with the first finger and thumb of her right hand and nodded shallowly to confirm that his explanation sort of made sense to her.

"So, how did your brother become 'The Black Mage'? It's pretty obvious that those names are merely a title that you most likely have given each other to hide your identities, 'Merlin'." Ben inquired rather harshly out of his own frustration. The old wizard simply gazed at the carpet in shame for his brother and answered solemnly, "War." He then hovered his left hand in front of him with his palm aimed at the carpet and whispered some words to himself before the entire room shifted to an area far back in the medieval times. He then began recounting the story for them to hear, "in the times of the medieval era of the land called England, many strange and wonderful things inhabited the land." It seemed as if they were flying swiftly through golden fields of tall grass toward the ocean and swiftly turned around to gain an eagle's eye view of the land before them. As they flew along the ground various mythical creatures passed by their field of vision as Merlin named them off, "Unicorns, gargoyles, manticores, and various other creatures only heard of in fairy tales. But, the wisest and the most feared among these creatures were dragons." As he introduced these mythical creatures the group was brought within petting distance of a giant scaled beast with large wings nearly like that of a bat. It stood on four legs that beheld a razor sharp claw on each of its four main toes and even one on its thumb toe as a dew claw like on a dog. With the beast's neck stretched out half of the length of its enormous body and its tail twice its body length, the entire creature could have been estimated around half of the size of a sand worm. On the crown of its sharply angled lizard head it donned four sharply pointed horns that extended out as if it actually was wearing an ivory crown. Its intimidating gaze from its dark brown eye could have made even the most fearless of men cower into a dark corner. Over all, the creature commanded both fright and inspiring awe simply by standing in place. "Seen mostly in this form, they also commanded great magic and could shift their form into whatever they desired, even human." Merlin informed them. "Every once in a while, a dragon in human form could fall in love with a human. That is who we are, dragon born brothers born from a dragon father and a human mother. Over time, we developed our skills and talents until a great battle the humans named 'war' was waged and my brother took advantage of his skills as an alchemic magician. His own power and destructive might corrupted him and drove him mad with insatiable bloodlust." As he continued this part of the story, the images changed to the three children all with golden hair, playing and growing until he explained war to them. Then the image changed into a cloud of crimson smoke with the brother later known as 'The Black Mage' gaining a bloodthirsty look in his eye and laughing maniacally. "The Sleeper and I reluctantly fought a long and hard battle against him until we were finally able to take him into the Neitherworld and seal him away. We then erected that temple on top of his seal and erected the four centaur statues with a guardian enchantment placed on them to keep him in place." The image then faded back to Lydia's house as he said, "And the rest you know. Now he has freed himself and is seeking revenge on both me and my brother." "So what happened to your other brother? Why do you call him 'The Sleeper'?" Bertha asked but the moment Merlin opened his mouth to answer her question, the house suddenly began to shake and another dragon's gate began opening in front of them. "I will answer that in due time. For now we go back to the Neitherworld." Merlin quickly said while escorting them all away from the gate. "That wasn't nice 'brother'. I try and give you a big hug from not seeing you in a couple thousand years and you ditch me in the middle of our reunion." A dark voice said from behind the gate. This gate didn't look like Merlin's. The other side was completely blacked out with only a pair of glowing crimson eyes gazing back at them. A light maniacal chuckle then could be heard from behind the darkened dragon's gate.

End of Season 2 Episode 1


	2. Episode 22: The Visionary

**Beetlejuice**

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 22: The Visionary**

"What are you doing, Grimnak?" Merlin demanded of his brother. "You're not supposed to be able to open dragon's gates." "I can't, thank-you-very-much. This is called a 'Projection Gate', an ability I created not long before you imprisoned me. I can't step through it, but if I try..." Grimnak trailed off and closed his distance on the gateway. Once his hand touched through to the other side his eyes whitened completely and it looked as if something was being pulled out of him. Lydia and the others watched in shock as a massive blob of goo fell to the floor in Lydia's house. The goo then began quickly taking shape, his shape. And once it was done, an exact copy of Grimnak stood in front of her. He waltzed up to her tauntingly with a devilish smile on his face. "What do you think?" He asked her, staring into her widened eyes as if he was trying to read her very soul. "I can't leave outside of my own sight, and I have an entire, what is your measurement of time?" He turned his head upward to think, but only for a second, "Thirty minutes, that's right." He then leaned in to nearly touch Lydia's nose with his own, "So, if I were you, I'd run." Before he could do or say any more, Ben morphed back into Beetlejuice and came face to face with him, "Hello, name's Beetlejuice. But, more importantly, I've got some mail for you." He then reached into his right suit pocket yanked out a large burlap sack filled with blank letters and tossed it at Grimnak. Instinctively, The Black Mage caught the large sack and Beetlejuice was able to push the double back into the gate using his right foot. The moment the double backed into the gate it literally evaporated and the gate began to collapse. Grimnak himself was blown backward by an explosion on his side just as the walls of the gate lit with silver looking flames. The gate then simply burned like a piece of paper, sealing it back up. After they all settled down, Lydia tapped Beetlejuice on the left shoulder and asked him, "How did you know that sending him back into the portal would close it?" Beetlejuice answered her, "Honestly, I didn't but I figured that if I could send him back into the portal he'd at least have to create another doppelganger before pursuing us. My plan was to at least slow him down." Lydia then nodded in agreement and at his good fortune.

Back in the Neitherworld, Grimnak awoke with a start once the Projection Gate forced itself closed. He growled angrily at his new developments, "That Gate takes up too much of my mental and physical energy. I underestimated them, it seems. This is going to be more difficult than I thought." He then began to chuckle to himself, "This is going to be more **fun** than I thought."

Back in Lydia's house, the group did their best to haul Delia and Charles upstairs into the master bedroom of the house and put them comfortably in bed. "How long until your spell wears off again?" Lydia asked Merlin. "Four hours at the most." He answered. "Everyone is different." Just then, Delia began to stir like she was awakening from a long sleep. "I'll see you all at Beetlejuice's house." Merlin blurted out quickly and then headed downstairs as fast as he could. He got to the bottom of the staircase and waved his hands quickly and then vanished from sight. A few moments later the front door opened and shut by itself as if someone was exiting in a hurry. Lydia followed the old man and watched him as he vanished from sight and inevitably asked herself, "Did he just turn invisible?"

It took almost all of two hours for Lydia's parents to awaken, giving the girls and Ben plenty of time to clean up any evidence of other worldly beings and for the others to head over to the cabin for a strategy meeting with Merlin. Delia woke up first and apparently felt as if she had a hangover for just a few seconds. "Oh, what happened?" She asked groggily still feeling her consciousness return to her. Lydia stood by with a kind of sheepish grin on her face trying to think of a good excuse, "I don't know, you two just collapsed from exhaustion." She awkwardly blurted out. Delia looked at Lydia as if she may have been right and simply shrugged her shoulders. "I think I've been working too hard." She finally guessed referring to her work in her art studio. Charles then groaned and sat up in the same manner as Delia. Again, the sensation of a hangover faded quickly and simply left him slightly dizzy. "Oh, what happened?" He asked in the exact same manner as his wife. Lydia giggled lightly at the awkward little sentiment and asked with a smile, "Is it alright if I walk Ben home? I think that this birthday is about over." Indeed she was right, but there were more important matters to attend to. "Yah, honey, sure. Just hurry home, ok?" Charles said to her. Lydia smiled again and simply nodded her head to answer him.

On the way over to Ben's house, Lydia began to look down at the ground with a slight worry. "Looks like another dangerous adventure." She sighed. "It seems like it." Ben answered. "I promise that I'll do better as your guardian ghost, though." Lydia smiled at the sentiment and responded, "Thanks BJ." She began laughing again at the silly nickname as Ben groaned in mild frustration. "I really **hate** that nickname!" It was then not long till they entered the forest and were on their way to locating Ben's house. To keep their minds off of the impending battles, they began to talk about the things in their normal life. During the six months of peace, they did everything they could to get their lives as normal as possible. Lydia still dreamt about her mother, Bertha coped with her traumas by revising her Drakenfeld strategies, Prudence studied books on combat situations and even signed up for martial arts lessons to allow her to protect herself if trouble arises once more, Claire's life changed for the better as her parents spent much more time with her and she even began changing her reputation at school, Ben fit in to his surroundings like a charm and even joined the school baseball team just to keep himself busy for a time.

"Here we are." Ben stated as they reached the front door of the cabin. The two of them entered the wooden house and were greeted by the rest of their friends. Claire ran up and gave her friends a small greeting hug and led them in still happy of Lydia's birthday. "I think she's finally lost it." Ben whispered to Lydia only to get a swift kick in the shin from Claire who heard him. Ben gripped his injured leg and hopped around trying to balance on one leg and regretting his snide remark. Claire then stormed back to a chair to sit down. "You're an idiot." Lydia threw in.

Once Ben's little side show was over, they all sat down to listen to Merlin's tale once more, however, he still referred to his third brother as "The Sleeper". How come you haven't told us your third brother's name?" Prudence asked. Merlin looked kindly at the small girl and answered, "Because, I can't remember it." "Wait, you can remember the name of the brother that is trying to kill you, but you can't remember the name of the brother that lays dormant and defenseless somewhere?" Claire snapped at the old man. "As long as I don't' remember his name, I'll never recall his resting place. And in that, I'm protecting him." Merlin coldly stated back to her. "Why is that?" Lydia asked. Merlin turned back to the pale skinned girl and solemnly answered her, "Being my brother, Grimnak has partial access to my thoughts. The moment I remember The Sleeper's name, is the moment he is supposed to awaken, not a moment sooner." "So, in forgetting your brother except for any legends and rumors, you keep your brother safe from The Black Mage." Bertha repeated Merlin's earlier statement. The old man simply turned his gaze to her and nodded. "I'm sorry, I've gotten you all mixed up in my family problems." He then solemnly apologized. "If this is a family quarrel, I'd hate to see 'falling out'." Ben said under his breath to Lydia. She bumped her left elbow into his right ribs to silently tell him that his remark wasn't appropriate and insensitive. "So, why can't Grimnak use dragon's gates?" Claire asked remembering the short conversation and then freaky demonstration of The Black Mage's projection gate. "The dragon's gate is an ability of the dragons due to the original guardians of the spirit gate **being** dragons. We have a direct connection to the four worlds in order to maintain a delicate balance. It took almost all of my energy, but I did manage to sever Grimnak's connection to the spirit gate. Without that, he lost the ability to create and move through dragon's gates." Merlin answered. "And that inevitably stranded him on one world." Lydia surmised. Merlin nodded in confirmation and then added, "Are there any more questions?" Suddenly a dark and sinister voice asked from the front door, "Yes, how long does it take to recall family?"

The group then turned to the front door only to find the frame filled with Grimnak's projection gate and with another doppelganger already formed. Ben morphed into Beetlejuice in mid rush to try and shove the double back through the gate only to be stopped and find himself helplessly floating in place inches away from Grimnak's right hand. "Beetlejuice!" Lydia called to her guardian ghost in shock. "Gravity manipulation." Grimnak chuckled. He then motioned his hand as if he was tossing a stuffed doll to the side and Beetlejuice's form simply followed suit and was actually tossed aside and into the closest wall. Lydia felt the impact as he crashed into the wall and struggled to get up. "It feels like my body weighs a ton." Beetlejuice grunted while pushing as hard as he could to stand upright. Lydia could feel an enormous weight fall upon her own shoulders as Grimnak aimed his left hand to her. She was soon unable to keep herself from dropping to her knees and even struggled to support herself with her arms. The same exact thing began happening to the others as he increased the gravity around them to nearly crushing levels.

Suddenly, Lydia felt the anger once again boil over. The strange thing was that it was obviously not her own anger. Ten seconds later, her vision went black and another consciousness began taking over. Rage built up to uncontrollable levels in both Lydia and Beetlejuice and the same transformation began to occur from the final battle against Naria. The canine teeth lengthened and sharpened on both of them, Beetlejuice's fingernails both lengthened and sharpened while Lydia's formed into a kind of razor sharp claw. Both Beetlejuice's and Lydia's eyes changed color and became blood red and Beetlejuice's hair darkened to a flat reddish gray and even lengthened past his shoulders. To Grimnak's surprise, both of them began standing easily under his heightened gravity. Lydia hissing as if she was a snake and Beetlejuice growling like a wild beast, The Black Mage began to feel something he hadn't felt in a long time, fear.

Panicking, Grimnak increased the strength of his spell on the two but still they stood firm, gazing with extreme bloodlust at their prey. Beetlejuice was the first to lunge at The Black Mage with unimaginable speed, burying the nails of his right hand into the doppelganger's chest. Lydia followed suit ad dug the claws of her right hand into his left kidney. At the exact same time, as if they were in sync with each other, Lydia swiped her left claws through the doppelganger's stomach while Beetlejuice used his left hand to decapitate it. Rather than spurting blood, the double vanished in a black mist and the projection gate collapsed in the same manner as when the first double was pushed back in. With their first enemy destroyed, the two turned their attention back on their friends. Uncontrollable rage racing through them blinding them to any friend or foe they readied themselves to destroy everything and everyone until Merlin chanted words in his native language while aiming his palms at Lydia and Beetlejuice respectively. After a few seconds, they both slowly shifted back to their original forms and collapsed on the floor of the cabin, asleep. "What happened? Is that because of the pact?" Claire asked clearly frightened. Merlin simply watched the two sleep, bewildered and just as frightened, "I don't know. Even the wind won't tell me." He then whispered to Beetlejuice and Lydia as if he was trying to keep them from hearing him, "What are you?"

Lydia awoke from her slumber the next morning. Startled to see herself in her own bed, she recalled the events of last night up until Grimnak made her body feel like it weighed a literal ton, and then nothing. She was unable to piece any memories together to tell her how Grimnak was defeated. Just blackness as if she had passed out from her struggle. 'I don't even know how I got home.' She thought to herself after failing to remember what happened with the battle. 'Perhaps I'll ask Beetlejuice when I see him at school.' She stood up out of her bed and stretched her arms to release any stiffness from her body and made her way down stairs to greet her parents when she heard a third voice in conversation with them, a voice she didn't recognize. She crept slowly and as quietly as she could down the stairs to catch a glimpse of the person who owned the unfamiliar voice. What she saw was a tall thin woman with an even build and wearing a navy blue pin-striped business suit. Her long brown hair made her seem young but her voice made her seem extremely educated. As she spoke she had a sense of professionalism to her voice and at the same time concern for the subject. It was mid ranged for a woman her age and had a smooth serious tone to it as she spoke matter-of-fact to Lydia's parents. She overheard them discussing the details of her assault from Adrian some time ago and she began to feel uncomfortable listening to them talk about her behind her back.

Lydia concluded her trip down the stairs to find out exactly who her parents were talking to and the reasons why. However, the moment she entered the room Delia noticed her and called to her, "Lydia, you're awake. Come sit down and meet your lawyer for the trial next week." Lydia stopped in her tracks upon realization. "Trial? My 'lawyer'?" she asked in her surprise. "Yes, the trial against your assailant, Adrian Ruitman. He dislocated your shoulders on June the twenty first." The woman in the suit said to her. She stood up to greet Lydia with a hand shake, "Pleased to meet you Lydia. I'm Susan Meilin." She was certainly young, about somewhere in her mid twenties with bright brown eyes that almost seemed to gleam with gold mixed in. She kept a folder in her left arm while extending her right hand out for a proper greeting. "I'm sorry to arrive so late. I graduated Law School six months ago and picked up your case about three months ago. It looks like an open-shut case though. Were there witnesses to the event?" Lydia hesitantly shook the lady's hand thought to herself that she knew an ancient man with a very similar name. "Yes there were. Adrian's friends and my friend Ben." She then answered. "Good, you could need any one of them to testify against him." She responded. "All you have to do is remember as much as you can about the event and be able to present it in your testimony next week. Now, why don't you tell me about it?" Her eyes were intense but at the same time they were gentle and concerned toward her client. And so Lydia began to recount her story of the day Adrian dislocated her shoulders.

End of Season 2 Episode 2


	3. Episode 23: The Truth

**Beetlejuice**

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 23: The Truth**

The day of the trial was a long one. Dragging on until it about drove poor Lydia insane. Instructions to describe in detail how the event took place and to try and not leave anything open for cross examination, the lady who was the prosecuting lawyer, Susan Meilin, acted as if this was a murder trial, taking the assault seriously. Ben made sure to be there for Lydia in the audience with Bertha, Prudence and Claire. "All rise." The bailiff said to the entire courtroom. The moment the words left his mouth, everyone in the courtroom rose to their feet as the bailiff continued, "The honorable Judge Marshal presiding." As he spoke a large Samoan man in his late twenties and wearing a black judge's robe entered from a door in the back of the courtroom. He sat in a plush black chair and turned his gaze out to the room. The courtroom had a set of fancy double doors near the back from where the judge sat and directly in front of that was a small seating area for onlookers to observe. About six rows of benches on either side with a pathway located down the direct middle for witnesses and members of the trial to make their way to the front where two desks that were separated by a podium obviously for witness testimonies. A microphone located on the podium assisted the audience in hearing the testimonies. The entire room looked as if it was carved from an entire forest of light colored cedar, the white paint on the walls and gold trim only served to make the place all the more blinding. Lydia stood next to the prosecutor, Susan, to await her turn as a witness to Adrian's assault on her. She sat diligently listening to the words of the bailiff and following instructions.

Something continued to cause Ben's spine to shiver as he gazed around the courtroom to fine the source of the uneasy feeling. After the judge sat down in his chair, the bailiff announced, "You may be seated", and the remainder of the courtroom sat where they were. And thus the proceedings began. The judge spoke into his microphone and said, "Order, please. The trial of Adrian Ruitman will come to order." He then turned his gaze toward Adrian's defense lawyer and asked, "Is the defense ready?" "Defense is ready your honor." The thin graying sixty year old man stated in his cracked smoker's voice. Earlier Lydia learned that the defense layer's name was Laurence Cadrian and that he had a reputation for being a flake in cases like these. "Is the prosecution ready?" The judge asked turning over to Susan. "The prosecution is ready, your honor." She answered. "Please give us your opening statement." The judge asked. And with that, Susan proceeded toward the judge and spoke to both him and those watching from the benches.

Ben listened intently to Susan's opening statement about how Adrian had done this to not just Lydia, but harassed other girls as well, and how she was going to present proof and witness statements about the particular event. That is until another shiver was sent from his skull and down his spine. A shiver similar to the one he felt the first time Grimnak showed up from behind his projection gate. The persistence of the shiver told him that it wasn't in his head, Grimnak was somewhere nearby. He was confused about how he was able to know that the shiver was Grimnak in the first place but he wasn't willing to take any chances, so he stood up and quietly left the courtroom to investigate. As he exited the courtroom, he was confronted by a security guard who took him by the right arm. "You need to come with me. We have witnesses that state that you were involved in a recent robbery." He stated flatly. "What?!" Ben blurted out in shock as the guard took him away somewhere that he could keep him in custody.

As Claire, Bertha and Prudence listened to the defense attorney's opening statement they were surprised when they were suddenly grabbed by the arm and escorted out by three other security guards and escorted out of the courtroom with claims to have ties to a robbery. Once they were completely out of the room, the entire courtroom stood still as statues as if time itself had stopped. "What do you think of my little trap?" Lydia could hear a familiar and unwelcome voice come from behind the judge. "Lydia, who is that, and what is going on?" Lydia was startled when she heard Susan speak to her. "What, why aren't you effected by his spell?" Lydia spouted in slight confusion. Susan, herself was even more confused but was unable to ask any questions before Grimnak piped in, "Yes that is an interesting question. How **are** you unaffected by my control spell?" Susan was beginning to get flustered at this strange turn of events and never in her life had she believed in magic or spiritual phenomena. ""What are you talking about? There is no such thing as 'magic' or..." Her sentence was cut off as she gazed at Lydia who looked to have a red poncho phase in and out of existence. "What the hell is **that**?" she asked in a mild panic, pointing to Lydia's clothes. Lydia looked down at herself until she found what Susan was pointing at. The spider silk phased in and out once again before her eyes. "The spider silk. That's what's protecting us. So how come you had to escort Beetlejuice and the others out of the courtroom?" Lydia began to question Grimnak . "Beetle-who? Who is this guy?" Susan asked panicking more and more with every moment that passed by. "His name is Grimnak and he's the guy who's going to destroy you for making me look bad." Lydia heard Adrian's voice say from the defense stand. "He came to me yesterday with a proposition. I team up with him and he gets rid of you and your sorry friends for good." He grinned at them with malicious intent. "Who knew that there were more worlds out there?"

Suddenly, his eyes glossed over and he simply stood where he was in place like all of the others. "Foolish boy. Why would I let a mortal like you become my equal? I only needed you to lead me to the girl." He then turned his gaze back to Lydia and spoke, "However, I never imagined that you would be carrying the spider silk. I've only ever seen you in the outer world where it doesn't often reveal itself unless your life is in danger." Lydia was slightly taken back with his statement. "How do you know so much about the spider silk?" She asked in her shock. Grimnak giggled to himself maliciously from her question and soon began belting out laughing. "I was there when its creator vanished off of the face of the Neitherworld." He then settled the conversation by saying, "but enough about me, the spider silk doesn't protect you from harm unless your life would be in mortal danger from its immediate effect. So I can take you within an inch of your life and let nature do the rest."

Ben found himself being escorted by a guard to a lobby area where he was watched not only by other guards but by staff members, witnesses for other cases and even by convicted felons fresh out of their trials, all under mind control. He was about to morph until he noticed Claire, Bertha and Prudence being brought in at gun point by three other guards. "Mr. Beetlejuice, I wouldn't even dream of trying anything funny until the master comes out and gives us further orders." The guard escorting Ben said to him in a monotone voice.

Lydia ducked and dodged as Grimnak threw various singular spells at her. She kept Susan as close to her as possible, continuing to dodge and weave from bench to bench until Grimnak began laughing aloud. "Do you actually believe that I would let myself be fooled by a simple tactic as luring my fire to the doors?" He belted out. Lydia suddenly found that he could move stealthily as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere in front of her and grabbed her by the collar and tossed her toward the judge's desk. She hurled through the air and crashed into the wooden furnishings stopping her flight short. Susan hurried to keep up with Lydia but the moment that the seventeen year old girl flew out of arm's length, Susan fell under Grimnak's mind control spell and simply stopped running. Winded and struggling to rise to her feet, Lydia did the only thing to come to mind, "Beetlejuice" She called. "Your guardian can't help you now. If he so much as moves my mind controlled minions blow your friend's heads off." Grimnak shouted to her with a sickening grin. "She never faltered in her plan, "Beetlejuice" "I already told you, he can't help you now! Surrender to your destruction!" Grimnak shouted back to her. With sorrow and regret weighing her heart down, Lydia screamed the last of her guardian's name aloud tears of apology streaming down her cheeks, "BEETLEJUICE!" And with the last syllable escaping her lips, Lydia vanished to the Neitherworld by herself.

She arrived in one of the rooms of the Road House which was still being refurbished by Sierra and dropped to her knees thinking that she had just killed all three of her friends. Tears of apology turned to tears of guilt as she screamed at the top of her lungs. Images of her mother flew through her head at light speed as she continued screaming, thoughts turning back to her and asking, 'what would you do in this situation?' She soon found herself yearning for her presence until she heard a knock at one of the doors with a familiar voice saying, "Hello, who's there? We're not quite open yet, but I'm sure that I can fit you in a week or so." It was Sierra, the southern belle Atlantian princess that Beetlejuice introduced her to from the diner when she first arrived in the Neitherworld. Lydia instantly ran over to the apartment door, unlocked it, threw the door open and threw herself into Sierra's bosom to release her tears. "Lydia!? Well, I haven't seen y'all in months. What's wrong there, sugar?" The only thing Lydia could do was bawl her eyes out and say, "Their dead, Sierra! I killed them. My friends are dead!" Taken back by Lydia's words Sierra shot her eyes open but remembered the kind of person she knew Lydia to be. "Simmer down there sugar." She said trying to calm the poor goth girl down. Once Lydia calmed down enough to speak to, Sierra looked her in the eyes and said, "Now, tell me what happened."

Lydia told her story to her Atlantian friend beginning from the opening of the trial and even filling in the blanks of who Grimnak was and what Merlin told them during her birthday. "So how come the others weren't taken over by his so-called spell?" Sierra asked offhand. "Maybe the spider silk protected them. It appeared briefly in the outer world to protect me." Lydia guessed. "No, then your little friend would have been protected long after she left yer side when y'all were thrown across the room. Oh if Aldar were here, he's have an answer." Sierra said those words and closed her eyes thinking of her lover who was sent to the underworld in battle against his sister Naria. "Either way, ah don't think that yer friends have been killed or they would have come here by now with the wounds that killed em. And ol BJ won't let that happen ta them anyway. Too bad ya can't jus warp back, take their hands and warp back here for a rescue. Or simply wait it out." A light bulb went on in Lydia's head when Sierra finished her sentence, "That's right, Grimnak only has about a half of an hour to use his gates. And he has to stay within eyesight of it or the doppelganger get's destroyed." Her confidence renewed, Lydia looked at the Atlantian princess and said, "That' means that Grimnak can't leave the room." She then thought of a problem, her friends, if not killed already, were being held at gunpoint and could be killed if she made a wrong move and Bertha was the best strategist and weighting him out seemed too risky, even if she estimated about twenty minutes till the projection gate automatically closed.

Back in the courthouse Ben had morphed back into Beetlejuice and gathered the girls around to discuss what options they had. "We need to see if Lydia is still alright in there." Claire said clearly worried. "She's fine, Claire. If she died I wouldn't exist anymore and I haven't felt too much pain from her ever since I stopped feeling her presence." Beetlejuice answered. "Maybe that means that she made it back to the Neitherworld." Bertha added. It made logical sense to the rest of the group and they all agreed that a tactical retreat was not abandonment. But now it left them with their own problem. "How about your powers of literal translation?" Prudence asked. "No good. What would I say to get us to out of here anyway? It needs to be a figure of speech in order to work." Beetlejuice responded until Claire whispered something in his ear. His eyes widened and he flatly responded, "You've gotta be kidding me." She slowly shook her head to tell him that she wasn't and he sighed and said, "Hang onto me everyone." Claire, Bertha and Prudence all grabbed hold of his coat and he then closed his eyes, clicked his heels together and said, "There's no place like home." In that instance they all vanished and found themselves in their own beds similar to how Dorothy found herself in her bed at the end of "The Wizard of OZ".

In the Neitherworld, Lydia felt as if she was running out of time with the thinking and planning and decided to move onto her house to find out what to do. "Although I know I should be weary, still I venture someplace scary. Ghostly hauntings, I turn loose Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice." She chanted and soon found herself in the stone room that served as a nexus between her closet and the Neitherworld. Remembering that her parents were among those that were taken by Grimnak's spell, Lydia made her way through her house along with Sierra freely. Lydia opened the front door to her house and was startled when she saw Beetlejuice standing there on the other side. "Ah." She shrieked while he simply chuckled. "Check this out Babes, I can transport myself anywhere by concentrating on the memory of it and picturing myself there." Gripping her heart to attempt it from beating itself right out of her chest, Lydia asked her guardian ghost, "But what about the others?" "I can only assume that they made it back to their respective houses as well. We used my power over literal translation to escape." Beetlejuice answered her. Lydia took two deep breaths and barged past Beetlejuice to attempt to hurry back to the courthouse. "Hey where are you going?" He asked her as Sierra followed Lydia. "To make sure my parents are alright." Lydia huffed with determination adding haste to her step.

She was soon stopped by a mob of town's folk led **by **Delia and Charles. "He has the whole town under his mind control." Sierra exclaimed, stating the obvious. Slightly panicking and nervous about having to possibly fight her parents, Lydia retorted, "I noticed, Sierra" through her teeth. "Lydia, come with us. Master Grimnak needs to see you and your friends." Delia said in a monotone voice as the mob advanced on the three of them. Sierra placed herself in between the mob and her friends with and arrow drawn on her bow. "No" Lydia pleaded with her friend, "Don't shoot them, they're living people. We need to take out the source." Beetlejuice then thought fast and grabbed both of their arms and shouted, "I'm taking you two ta court." The trio vanished from the mob's sight and reappeared in the courtroom in front of Grimnak. "Oh, good. I was running out of time." He stated and then chuckled. "It doesn't matter anyway. As long as my doppelganger isn't destroyed, I can utilize the same space over and over, creating as many projection gates as I need to get the job done." He then focused his gaze on Lydia and said, "Now where were we?"

Beetlejuice stomped his right foot to place himself in front of Lydia and said, "Not until you get past me, bub." His hands then lit ablaze as he stated, "And I'm all **fired** **up**!" Grimnak simply shook the frst finger of his right hand at the guardian ghost and tisked him, "I wouldn't do anything rash, unless you don't mind killing living humans that might happen to get in the line of fire. Sins in life may be forgiven upon death, but there **is **no redemption for a lost soul to take the life of a living being. That was what the sand worms were for." His glare gaining malice by the minute. Beetlejuice looked around the courtroom and noticed that there were seven people alive in the courtroom, including Adrian, the judge, and Susan, all placed exactly where they were the moment Grimnak cast his spell.

As a last ditch effort, Lydia instinctively ran for Susan to at least try and get her out of the battle zone, but Grimnak shot a kind of impact force spell from his left palm and struck her in the stomach and sending her sprawling into the courtroom doors. Beetlejuice, feeling both impacts felt himself cornered until Sierra pulled her arrow back on the string. Grimnak hurried to place himself behind the judge and use him as a safety shield. "Go ahead and try you sick Atlantian scum. Your people deserved to die out when they..." Sierra never allowed him to finish his sentence. There was a window of opportunity as he lifted his head above the judge's and that was the moment she fired the arrow. A path straight and true, the arrow struck Grimnak in the forehead and he found himself dumbfounded. The doppelganger then burst into what looked like sand and everyone that was affected by his spell collapsed to the ground unconscious. "You could have killed the judge." Lydia exclaimed. Sierra looked at the girl with a cocky and confident look and told her, "He gave me enough space for error. I practice for at least two hours each morning." "Please try not to do that again." Lydia pleaded. She then remembered a certain part of Grimnak's rant, "What happens to a lost soul if they murder a living soul?" Sierra looked down at the floor of the courtroom and solemnly answered with longing in her voice, "Immediate sentence to the Underworld. Where I'll be with him." Suddenly, Sierra felt Lydia's right hand and palm connect to her left cheek. She reeled back but kept her balance and then placed her left hand on the sore spot on the cheek. "Is **that** what you were shooting for? You're going to give up everything to be trapped in the Underworld with no guarantee that you would even be **told** whether or not he is around?" Lydia held a definite focus and determination in her eyes. "I had depression when I was young and I used to cut my wrists, but I was once told that life is more precious than anything and a friend who would rather you kill yourself in despair than live your life in real joy and happiness is no friend at all. The coward's way never leads to real happiness. Ever since I left Oregon, I've never even gave killing myself a thought. 'No matter how far I fall, there is always the opportunity to climb back up' was how he said it. He also said that every step was worth the smiles, but then again he said a lot of other corny, yet true things." Tears were now beginning to stream down Sierra's face as she began crying out her sadness that she kept back since after the battle.

The gang took time to send Sierra back to the Neitherworld and to make sure that nobody saw her. Apparently those who were affected by Grimnak's spell couldn't remember anything since they awoke that morning. The remainder of the day, the trial went without another hitch and now Lydia knew that there was no more threat to the courthouse because of The Black Mage's rant about how he couldn't utilize the same space if his doppelganger was destroyed before time ran out. She was, however still worried about her Atlantian friend. Knowing firsthand the things depression could cause a person to do and Sierra with her finding love in a soldier that faded away in her arms. She could only imagine what something like that does to a person. She was in such deep thought that she didn't even notice Ben walk up behind her after the trial, "So," he began to say when she nearly jumped out of her shoes from being startled. "Ah!" She gasped, "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" She snapped at him. "Sorry Lyds. I just wanted to know who told you all of those corny things back there." Lydia smiled at some of the memories she had while at school with this guy. "A soldier that I met in Oregon. At least, he's a soldier now. I hope that he's still alive." "Lydia" Delia squeaked. "It's time to go back home. Does Ben need a ride?" Lydia looked back to her friend and he simply smiled back. "Yah, sure mam." She called back to Delia. "You know you can call me 'mom' right?" Delia tried to make her point clear to Lydia. "Not, yet." Lydia kindly responded, "But you're getting closer."

End of Season 2 Episode 3


	4. Episode 24: The Tournament

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 24: The Tournament**

Bertha anxiously awaited her arrival at school. She anxiously awaited seeing her friends after a bit of news she received in her e-mail inbox. Her legs couldn't stop bouncing up and down from the anxiety, the smile plastered on her face never faded even in the slightest, her eyes wide with anticipation and excitement. Mrs. Hennings pulled up to the front of the school and Bertha nearly slammed her face into the window before she gave herself chance to even open the car door. She dashed away as her mother called out, "Have a nice day, honey." Bertha spotted both Ben and Lydia conversing with Claire and Prudence near the tree to the right grassy area of the school's entrance. "Hey!" She called out to them, happy and excited. She needed to catch her breath as she reached the four of them and Claire gingerly placed her hand on the winded girl's back to do what she could to calm her down. "Bertha, what in the world is going on? Are you being chased by The Black Mage, or something?" Lydia asked while Ben got defensive and watched out for their new enemy.

Bertha took three deep breaths before reaching into her backpack and presenting a printout that she had made from her computer. The printout said, "Drakenfield National Tournament Registration Acceptance Letter" and the others simply stared at what was written on it, studying it carefully. "Drakenfield?" Ben read aloud and then the concept finally hit him, "Wait, they have **tournaments** for this card game?!" He shouted his exasperation. "All over the world." Bertha responded, "It was really hard to register too. I needed to sign up two months in advance and beat fifty competitors, plus have them sign a record sheet that had them sign their names, and best card plus date it to confirm. After that I needed to wire seventy dollars for the entry fee." "Why is it so expensive to enter as a participant?" Lydia asked with her own exasperation over the entry price. "The tournament is being held in Oregon over the course of two weeks. It's gonna be huge!" Bertha shouted excitedly and threw up her arms to give an exaggerated visual representation. "Letter of acceptance" Claire mumbled to herself. "So your application for this tournament was accepted?" "Yah! Isn't it awesome?" Bertha began shouting once again. She then got somber and began to pout a little, "The only problem is, I won't be able to see you guys for those two weeks." "I knew someone from Oregon when I was younger." "We know!" The rest of the group piped in at the same time. "Sorry guys." Lydia apologized. "Sierra just kind of got me thinking about him. I wonder where he is now." She then closed her eyes and quoted him once again, "We leave our mark wherever we go. How do you want history to remember you?" "I honestly didn't think that you were into those corny lines." Ben retorted. "I'm not. He kinda beat them into my head." Lydia answered with a light blush. "I'd like to go to Oregon with you." Claire said to Bertha. "The sights, the shopping..." The **trees**." Lydia interrupted sarcastically. "Trees?!" Claire asked slightly confused mere moments before the school bell rang.

They slowly swarmed into their classroom and took their seats to begin the school day. Normality continued as the classes rolled on uneventfully. No sign of Grimnak or even Merlin for that matter. The only noticeable thing was that as the day wore on, Bertha became more and more apprehensive. Lydia eventually realized that something seemed so silly to her was so important to her friend and tried to cheer Bertha up, however the tall scrawny girl never actually showed up for lunch. Worried for her, Lydia decided to see if she could locate her before lunch was over.

Meanwhile The Black Mage opened up a projection gate within the walls of the school and decided that it would be wise to use an invisibility spell to hide both himself and the gate. 'I can't allow those brats to get in my way anymore.' He thought to himself. 'But this place is so crowded.' His observation was correct since he arrived during passing time between classes. He soon noticed the students hurrying to their destinations at the sound of a bell. 'What of my dragon's name was that?' He asked himself upon hearing the noise that caused the students to change their behavior. 'Is it some kind of warning bell?' He watched as the various students piled into different rooms and decided to peak into one of them for observational purposes. He watched and listened as the teacher paced back and forth at the front of the classroom giving the lesson assigned for that class, bringing up memories of his own time being taught how to use alchemy in his own youth. He made his way to another classroom and listened to the teacher give a different lesson than the first one. 'So each teacher has either a particular agenda or perhaps a specialty subject. I wonder which of these rooms the little brats are in now.' He thought to himself. 'I may want to utilize this as an information point. Learning as much of the teachings of this world as I can may prove useful.' The moment his thoughts ended, something caught his attention. A set of double doors swung open and out came one of his targets, Lydia was worried for Bertha and set up her own search party consisting of herself, Ben, Claire and Prudence.

They divided the school into four quadrants to make finding her quicker, the one who found her first would console her and wait for the others to come find them. 'So, one of them is saddened by something, eh? Perhaps I can use this to my advantage.' Grimnak said to himself and followed Lydia through her portion of the school. Silently keeping behind her, Grimnak followed. Every once in a while, Lydia would get a strange shiver down her spine and look to see if she was being followed. Turning back after seeing nothing, she continued her search for her distraught friend. 'I hope her flight wasn't today, I wanted to see her off.' Lydia thought to herself. 'Just which city in Oregon was she going to? The only place that I know of that does things like card tournaments was the Portland Convention Center and I've only been there once for a music convention simply out of curiosity.' She continued through a set of double doors that separated the main hall from the side halls and Grimnak hesitated to follow remembering that he must stay within eyesight of his portal at all times. Growling to himself, he gave up on pursuing her and turned to try and choose someone else until he noticed them all heading down an individual hall. 'Gah, how can I discover more of my adversaries if I can't even follow them? The limitations of my projection gate are quite vexing.' He thought to himself.

Somewhere within the school library, Bertha sat by herself silently crying to herself. She hadn't realized that leaving her friends would be so hard, but she rarely got the chance to travel at all and now she was going to get on a plane to travel to Portland, Oregon in two days, the only detail that she failed to mention earlier. She wasn't bawling or anything, she just didn't know what to say was simply trying to figure out why flying out for just under two weeks made her feel as if she was moving away and never going to see them ever again. She kept her Drakenfield deck in front of her to try and keep her busy thinking about her strategy and attempt to cheer herself up. 'How is this so hard? It's not like that I'm moving away. I'll just be gone for two weeks, so what's wrong with me?' She thought to herself while looking through her cards and making sure she had the right figurines for the eighth time. Her figurines kept a dragon theme to them, that is to say they all were European two legged dragons of various sizes and colors, the tallest being only a mere inch and a half tall with an inch and a quarter diameter round base. She decided to place her cards down in front of her and pick up one particular figurine of an intimidating looking dragon that was designed to look as if it was made from diamonds. "What should I do, Diamond Aura?" She asked it as if she thought it would respond. When it inevitably didn't, she sighed deeply and placed her head on the table with her arms cradling it for support.

Lunch was soon to end when Prudence walked in to the library. She had anticipated that Bertha would have been in a few places but thought that the library should be a last resort. She wandered around for a short while until she spotted her life-long friend sitting at an empty table near the back of the empty library. She hesitated, but inevitably decided to ignore Lydia's instructions and cheer up her friend before informing the others. She silently snuck up to Bertha and quietly asked, "Got a second deck?" Referring to Bertha's favorite game, Drakenfield. Bertha was startled slightly out of her thoughts and quickly turned to look at the tiny girl. "How long have you guys been looking for me?" She asked, saddened and slightly embarrassed. "The entire lunch." Prudence answered. Now Bertha thought that she was even more pathetic and simply placed her forehead on the table and let her arms hang as if she was dead. "So, did you bring a second deck or what?" Prudence asked once again.

Bertha gingerly brought out another Drakenfield deck for Prudence to play with. The deck consisted of a Wasteland Battlefield field card. The card was unique that it didn't have any specific paths as much as some squares looked to have various weapons strewn around. The place looked like the aftermath of a medieval war. The box of figurines consisted of what looked like veteran warriors in rusted armor. Prudence looked through the deck quickly and then began to shuffle after the two friends slid their field cards together to make the entire field.

After they thoroughly shuffled their own decks, they traded and cut each other's before handing them back and placing them face down on the table to their right and, without saying a word to each other, picking up the top six cards. Then they each grabbed their designated number of stones as written on their field card. Bertha took twenty while Prudence took seventeen. Prudence has seen Bertha play many times in the past and knew that she always played a Dragon deck and maximized her potential with various Dragon themed field cards depending on the type of strategy she employed for that battle. This time, Bertha was playing with a "Dragon's Nest" field card, a card that looked like a desert with craters and large grey egg shells scattered around various places. 'That must mean that she means to overwhelm my forces with the hatchlings that this card's ability produces.' Prudence thought to herself. She knew that she wasn't quite adept at changing strategy on the fly as Bertha was but she was determined to cheer up her friend by talking to her during a Drakenfield game.

"You can go first." Bertha quietly said to Prudence. She was quiet to be respectful of her environment in combination with her embarrassment and confusion. Prudence picked up the top card of her deck and placed it in her hand after studying it. She then plucked two cards from her hand and placed them face up in between her and her field card. "I summon, Sphinx Guardian and Veteran Swordsman." The small girl quietly announced while she opened the container that held her figurines. She picked up one that looked like a lioness' body with the head of a woman and the other looked like a tall battle scared warrior with a sword in hand and rusted armor. She placed the sphinx on the third square of the closest row to her and the warrior in the fifth square of the center row. "And with that, I end my turn." Prudence stated.

Bertha casually drew her card and thought out her strategy to herself. She decided to place two character cards down removing a total of ten stones from her stockpile. "I summon Crock Dragon and Crystal Dragon." She stated, placing the tokens of a green dragon with crocodile spines on its back and a white glittery dragon in the closest row to herself. "And with their arrival, my Dragon's Nest field effect activates, allowing me to place one Hatchling token adjacent to each dragon that was summoned." She then took two pennies and placed them on a square to the right of each figurine. 'What is she doing?' Bertha thought to herself wondering why Prudence was battling her when the next class had clearly started. "It's hard, isn't it?" Prudence said solemnly. Bertha looked up at her tiny friend surprised. "Your first trip out of state. You don't know what to say and it feels as if you're never going to come back. 'What if I like it here too much and we end up moving?' You ask yourself." Bertha just stared at the tiny girl, thinking to herself 'Did she just read my mind?' Prudence simply smiled at the tall lanky girl and said, "Trust me. You'll come back a champion." The happy, prideful smile on her face beaming as the sunlight.

Bertha's nerves calmed themselves down as she began to realize that she actually had nothing to worry about. She allowed her own smile to stretch across her face as she let the tears flow. After a few seconds of silently crying, Bertha reached her hand out and took one of her figurines and moved it forward as she announced in a whisper, I move Crystal Dragon forward three spaces and then pay three more stones to cast the Dragon's Claw item card and equip it to my Crystal Dragon." She placed the card from her hand beneath the Crystal Dragon's character card to indicate that it was equipped to it.

The two played their game until the end of school and Prudence made sure to walk with her best friend Bertha to meet with the others to discuss the tournament trip further. Apparently she was leaving in the morning and needed to pack the moment she had gotten home. Throughout that week, Bertha talked out her anxieties more and more the closer the deadline.

Bertha wasn't the only one who was busy through that week, Grimnak spent the entire time roaming from classroom to classroom listening and learning what the teachers had to say. Math, science, English, and various other classes. When' Bertha's flight had finally taken off to send her to Oregon for the tournament, he sat in the back of a math classroom scribbling on a pad of paper with a pencil, both of which he had procured from the student store near the science labs. He listened and worked the problems out in his head and began frustrating himself with advanced algebra.

The day had finally come. They all traveled to the nearest big city to see their friend off at the airport and Bertha was ready for her flight, her anxieties eased by the support of her friends. "We'll miss you." Claire said while she hugged her friend goodbye. They all hugged the traveling Bertha in turn wishing her good luck as they did. "Go show 'em what championship material really looks like." Ben stated. "Do your best." Prudence reminded her. "Good luck, Bertha. And have fun." Lydia told her. Bertha soon walked with her mother through the line and boarded the plane. The gang watched as the plane took off over the horizon and into the sunrise. As the plane made its way out of view, Lydia couldn't help but think that thing would be much different by the time she got home.

End of Season 2 Episode 4


	5. Episode 25: Past Inquiries

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 25: Past Inquiries**

Merlin took the time to study his new home for some time, while under the watchful eye of 'Laurence Juice'. Realizing that alchemic spells such as the projection gate take up a lot of energy and seal themselves off when disrupted, her was most likely safe so long as he stayed in the cottage or in the forest and didn't return to the Neitherworld for a while. 'This might be a good time to meditate.' He thought to himself. He located one of the three bedrooms and sat on the floor with his back against the bed, closed his eyes and began clearing his mind. After a few hours of meditating, images of the past began to invade his mind. Images of a time before Grimnak became the Black Mage and was once called the Golden Mage.

The three brothers walked side by side among other dragons, assisting humans and other creatures with their problems, ranging from assisting felines out of trees all of the way up to solving marital disputes. They especially enjoyed entertaining children using their various skills. One brother began juggling rocks that easily fit into his palm watching the children laugh while the other two engaged in conversation. "Brother Merlin." Began Grimnak, his voice kind and suave. "I've been thinking about these humans and their curious ways." Merlin looked in his mid thirties at this moment. Bright blue eyes full of youth and experience at the same time. His brown hair was long enough to touch his shoulders and he himself stood about five and a half feet tall with a slender build. His tanned skin spoke of the long journeys he and his brothers had been on under the sun and the soft smile on his face spoke of the wonders they had experienced. "What about them?" Merlin asked. "Well, they are such a short lived species. Perhaps they need someone to lead them to their full potential." Grimnak answered. Merlin simply chuckled slightly and looked into his brother's eyes with his answer. "They reach their potential on their own with the help of other humans. They don't need dragons to tell them what to do. Besides, a leader leading a people only leads them to his **own** potential not their individual potential. This is why humans live in communities and in separate homes. It is so they **can **discover their individual potential and contribute it to others. This is why we help and not lead."

"But if one with our wisdom leads these people, won't the humans stop these senseless wars?" Grimnak asked. "Perhaps." Merlin answered. "But then what would they learn? Even suffering brings with it harsh lessons. We should not take that away from them. If they don't learn not to hate, then hate would be all that they feel." "Do you keep with you, a book of these corny lines?" Grimnak asked his brother. Merlin simply began belting out laughing at his brother's response. After wiping a tear from his eye, Merlin answered, "But they do hold some truth in them do they not?" Grimnak lightly smiled at his brother and then continued gazing across the English countryside, simple villages of humans living happily with their families.

The three brothers continued on with their journey to observe and assist humans along the countryside, admiring the natural beauty of England's rolling hills and plains. Through their journey they heard rumors about the wars and battles, each rumor being more and more disturbing and saddening. Thoughts of leading this great nation to world victory and uniting other countries as one ran through Grimnak's mind as they stopped at an inn for a drink. He continuously brought himself up to thinking that his destiny was to end the suffering of this world and bring in a great era under his family rule, with his brothers by his side, as if something was whispering in his ear. "Brother, are we not better than the humans? Was it not them that invented war and suffering? Can we not show them the error of their ways?" He would often ask to Merlin. And Merlin would always answer his questions in the same humble manner, "It is not we who should rule them but they who shall learn how to live as themselves." His words getting more and more cryptic with every question Grimnak asked.

It was only a matter of time before the whispers drove Grimnak to insanity. The third brother respected as a king in the nation, Merlin thought of as a great seer and scholar, and the people fearing Grimnak more and more as he drove himself into his own darkness and madness. Then the day came, Grimnak's madness grew such that he began to hate his brothers for denying him his destiny for so long and no longer thought of having them by his side as he ruled. The whispers of madness now like shouts in his head, no longer able to ignore them. His magic potential had now become incredibly strong, combining spells using his knowledge of alchemy to get a desired result, thus expanding his potential exponentially. An entire village had been leveled by his hands and its people all slain, the two brothers the only ones still standing in Grimnak's way.

"I told you that humans need someone to stand up and show them all what true suffering is. Someone who can end war and bring them real peace." Grimnak cackled as he spoke, the madness present in his voice and eyes as if it was something tangible. "Ruling the humans like this can only bring them more suffering and tragedy." Merlin shouted to his insane brother. Merlin then turned to his brother and called him by name, however the pronunciation and vocal sound of the name became muffled the moment the world left Merlin's lips. Then image in his mind began to get hazy and he watched as the blurry shapes engaged in a fierce battle. The blurry shapes got blurrier and blurrier until his vision simply went white and he snapped out of his meditation.

"Damn." Merlin thought to himself, "What was my brother's name?" He then thought about the other situation that ran through his mind during meditation, "Oh,  
>Grimnak. Why? I thought you would have eventually given up on this foolish endeavor." He then signed deeply and dropped his gaze to the floor in between his knees in sad nostalgia.<p>

Meanwhile, in the Neitherworld, Grimnak was also meditating. Trying to figure out where his nameless brother could be hidden. 'Damn, why can't I remember my brother's name? I thought that the spell only affected Merlin. Perhaps he used a deeper magic than a simple forgetting spell. Could he have discovered some sort of ancient spell?' He thought to himself. 'How long exactly have I been imprisoned?' As he asked those questions to himself, images of his time traveling with his brothers flashed through his mind, desperately trying to get a hint at The Sleeper's name. Every time he thought that he remembered his brother's name, it would come to him as a blur rather than words and he found himself quickly flustered. "Damn! Why do I have to forget his name? I wasn't even around when he was put to sleep. I don't even know what happened to him after they imprisoned me. So, why?"

Merlin finally gave up on remembering his brother's lost name and focused on his growling stomach. "I wonder if there is anything for a dragon to eat." He said to himself aloud. He proceeded to the pantry where he could proceed to locate any food when he heard faint whispers in the air. A familiar voice that he longed to hear and whose name he struggles to remember. The whispers were so faint that he barely heard them until he stopped moving to think. It was then he heard the words faint as a maiden's whisper, "The dragon sleeps on the water's edge, upon the stone and light of which he beds. When the name is said and he begins to wake, the light of day he shan't forsake. Upon this day of familiar prize, look in at burnt sand in size. In daylight's conflict awake again, to reunite those close to him. Remember not until that day, when all of light will fade away. A secret kept for ages past, shall awaken and cease the quarrel at last." After the final word was whispered, the rhyme began to repeat itself over and over until it burned itself into Merlin's memory and he began repeating it by heart.

Ben arrived home from school that day. "Laurence, I'm home." He had gotten so used to addressing his duplicate as both his grandfather and by the duplicate's given name, Laurence, almost as if it was truly his grandfather. Ben only stopped when he began to hear Merlin's mumbling voice from the pantry. Morphing back into Beetlejuice he quickly made his way to his fallen old friend. Upon entering the pantry, Merlin started over with the words of his recent prophecy, "The dragon sleeps on the water's edge, upon the stone and light of which he beds. When the name is said and he begins to wake, the light of day he shan't forsake. Upon this day of familiar prize, look in at burnt sand in size. In daylight's conflict awake again, to reunite those close to him. Remember not until that day, when all of light will fade away. A secret kept for ages past, shall awaken and cease the quarrel at last."

"Merlin, wake up! Are you alright?" Beetlejuice called to the ancient man. Merlin then blinked twice as he snapped out of his trance and came back to reality. "Oh." He moaned as he placed his right hand against the right side temple of his head. "What happened?" Suddenly he remembered hearing the whispers from earlier, which slightly agitated his headache. "Oh, now I remember. The next prophecy. This happened with the Golden Maiden Prophecy, as well." Beetlejuice gave the old man a worried look and asked him, "Are you ok?" Merlin looked back at the guardian ghost's expression, realizing that despite his ancient appearance, he was probably now worse-for-wear due to the stress that new prophecy placed upon him. "Yes," Merlin sighed, "I'll be fine. For now we wait." "Wait for what?" Beetlejuice asked. "We wait for destiny to take its course." The old man solemnly replied.

End of Season 2 Episode 5


	6. Episode 26: The Dragon's Ring

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 26: The Dragon's Ring**

Another ordinary day in the life of Claire Brewster. She was awakened by the maid opening up the curtains of her room located on the right wall from her bed. "Good morning Miss Brewster" she announced in such a happy tone. Claire fluttered her eyes open and perked a smile as she stretched out the sleep. "Good morning Marry." Claire responded while exhaling and looked around her cheery, sunlit room. From her plush king sized bed, Claire could look around freely to examine her surroundings. The covers of her bed were shining gold colored with bits of silver and pearl. Her pillows were also the same three colors decorated mostly around the pearl color. Her room was similar to that, golden colored furniture arranged around the room extravagantly like in a home and décor magazine. A pearl white vanity and stool was located within feet from her bed against the same enormous wall. Her room was approximately the double the size of Lydia's room and was painted with a pale gold interior paint to offset the pearl colored Elizabethan furniture. Her bed was placed at the opposite end of the door and a desk was located opposite of the window. She had a complete furniture set, from the vanity to a matching end table and even a chest of drawers located close to her walk-in closet roughly half the size of her room. The closet was chalk full of outfits that most likely cost a fortune to purchase. Shoes of various shapes, sizes and colors, blouses varying in color and design, pants, skirts, dresses and other various accessories she could use to doll herself up on a casual day or even after school. But today was a school day, and she simply needed her uniform for right now.

Claire hopped out of bed and made her way to the shower to get cleaned up for school. As she began to dry off her hair, she began to think of her friend that had gotten on an airplane just two day s ago. "I can't believe how much things seem off without Bertha. We certainly have become close friends throughout the time Lydia showed up." She reflected upon her first impression of the gothic girl and how weird she thought that she was. She then reflected upon the events that took place that past year. Recalling when she found out that Ben was actually someone named Beetlejuice, how he was able to help her get in touch with her parents once again. She then thought about that fateful day when the war came. The warm water and steam from the shower then couldn't protect her from the shivers. Remembering what she felt when Aldar was struck down by his own sister and left to die. Watching his body fade from sight in Sierra's arms, leaving behind only his famous demon sword, the Soul Eater. A single tear fell from her eye and mixed in with the water from the shower that rested upon her face. She patted her face dry and pushed out the sad memories before continuing to freshen herself up.

After she took care of her hygiene, she proceeded to her closet and looked to her vanity where one of the house servants stood, ready to place on Claire's makeup, and another ready to fix her hair. Claire chuckled slightly and stated, "What would I do without you guys?" "Thank you for the compliment Miss Brewster." They both said at the same time. Claire couldn't help but chuckle once again as she found the synchronized speech amusing. She then fitted herself into her school uniform and proceeded to the vanity to let the two ladies do what they were paid to do. Her hair and makeup were done exactly as it usually was done, to allow her to look more modest and have her baby blue eyes accented.

Suddenly, there was a gentle knock at her bedroom door and Claire's mother poked her head in. "Breakfast is downstairs, dear." She said in her sweet gentle voice. Claire chuckled lightly once more and answered, "I'll be down mom." She then gathered her books and followed her mother out the door. However, she suddenly remembered that she had forgotten something important and poked her head back in her room and thanked the two servants that made her up. "Thanks Holly. Thanks Susan." She then turned to the servant that woke her up. She was now making the bed. "Thanks again Marry." She said and then continued to follow her mother downstairs to the dining hall.

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese and green peppers mixed in with breakfast sausages, ham and hash browns on the side accompanies by a glass of ice cold two percent milk and a talk about family plans for the afternoon, Claire packed her backpack and sat in the back seat of her parents' Rolls Royce Phantom for the trip to school.

When she made it to school she greeted her friends and her old posse as friends. They all made their way to their lockers and began to start their school day. Claire noticed José and Michael walk by them without so much as giving them a hard time now that Adrian was in prison. Claire turned the dial of her locker as the combination burned into her mind indicated and she opened the door only to notice a tiny silver dragon statue with tiny ruby eyes greeting her from the top shelf. Claire gasped in shock as she never noticed it there before and quickly calmed down with mild confusion as to who could possibly have placed it in her locker, thinking that it could have been any of the nerdy boys that play similar games to Bertha's "Drakenfield". She reached to take it from the shelf with the intention of examining it until it literally jumped onto the back of her hand. Claire then began to shriek with fright flinging her hand wildly to attempt to shake the tiny dragon off of her. The little silver piece clung skillfully while it crawled to her wrist and wrapped itself around it and fused itself into place like a bracelet.

As strong sense of power began to flow through Claire's body as she grasped the bracelet tugging and leading herself into the girl's restroom, staggering fighting for control of her mental state. Students stared on in disbelief thinking that a mouse must have jumped out of her locker at her as she stumbled into the restroom and held onto her wrist as if it were burning. An intense power began showing itself from behind her eyes, causing them to glow bright blinding white. Her consciousness still fighting to maintain herself as power began to take hold and corrupt from within. Suddenly, Lydia entered into the restroom and called out to her friend. "Claire!" she shouted and placed her right hand on Claire's left shoulder. Claire could feel the power welling up within her begin to subside until it suddenly burst forth for control once again. Worried for her friend, Lydia embraced Claire in a tight bear hug and hoped that whatever it was would go away like that.

Claire began feeling like herself again as the power subsided like Lydia hoped. The two friends fell to their knees as Clair began to lose consciousness the more the power within her waned. Lydia propped Claire's arm over her shoulder and then began to carry the blond girl to the school nurse's office. There she was placed on a bed until she regained consciousness. Lydia was hesitant to leave but eventually was made to leave and was glad when Claire didn't go on a rampage when Lydia broke contact with her.

Once Claire awoke, at first she couldn't remember much, but once her mind began to focus, her memories began to flood back and she shot up and looked to her wrist. Indeed the little statue had wrapped itself around her wrist so that it now looked like a silver bracelet rather than a statue. The bracelet looked like a cross between a Chinese dragon and a European dragon in design. The dragon had its chin and belly resting against Claire's flesh focusing the tiny ruby eyes outward. The horns looked similar to that of a young white tail deer. The shout seemed like a cross between a snake and a dog. The rest of the body was sleek with its wings pressed against its body like two capes shaped like bat wings. The dragon's legs were also pressed against its body while the tail wrapped once around Claire's wrist completely.

Remembering the feeling of overwhelming power that came from the strange object, Claire freaked out and once again attempted to remove the object from her wrist to no avail. No matter how much she struggled, the bracelet wouldn't budge and she soon found herself giving up and resorting to simply crying. The nurse ended up calming her down and sending her back to class after a few cognitive and health tests. However, Claire found herself unable to concentrate in class as well as made two more attempts to hold back power bursts in between classes.

When the bell sounded to signify that school was out, Claire approached Ben. "Do you mind if I ask Merlin about this bracelet?" She asked. She had already explained how she had gotten the silver trinket during lunch and Prudence had made a comment on how Merlin may know something about it. "Sure. Would it be alright with yer folks?" He asked in his Australian accent. Rather than answering him outright, she dug into her backpack for her cell phone and dialed her parents' phone number. Her dad answered the phone and she explained, "Dad, there's something I need at Ben's house... Yes, the boy that goes to school with me... Yes, the Australian one with the nice old man for his grandfather..." The rest of the conversation was mostly Claire simply agreeing to her father's terms. "Thanks dad, I'll see you in about an hour or so. Love ya." She then hung up her phone and explained her situation to Ben, "I have about an hour to ask that old relic, Merlin, what in the world this thing is and figure out how to take it off before my dad arrives and drives me home."

It took about half of that time for them to walk to Ben's cottage in the forest and find Merlin resting in the rocking chair. The old man was startled awake the moment Claire shook his shoulder. "You know, for a fortune teller, you sure don't act like you've seen the future." Beetlejuice stated sarcastically to him, teasing Merlin about being surprised. "The wind speaks in riddles and parables so don't make fun of me for not understanding the immediate future. Now what did you two..." Merlin's sentence trailed off when one of the ruby eyes of Claire's silver bracelet sparkled and caught his attention. The old man suddenly gasped and scrambled to hide himself behind the rocking chair he was sitting in. "Where did you get that?" He shouted to Claire. She lifted up her wrist and glanced at the trinket with great worry as it isn't often you see The Seer afraid of an object. "It began as a statue in my locker, but when I tried to touch it, it jumped and latched onto my wrist. What is this thing?" She responded. Dead silence filled the room as Merlin gathered his wits. "It jumped onto your wrist? Did you feel an immense power flow through your body?" He asked her. She nodded her head nervously to confirm his question. "Did you feel your very essence begin to change, almost like you began to like the rush of power?" He asked even more nervous than she. Claire lowered her head and solemnly answered, "To be honest, I was afraid of the power that I felt. I had been pretending to be something else for so long, I actually didn't want to do that again. Merlin slowly lifted himself from behind the chair and moved in to place his right hand on Clair's forehead as if he was checking for a fever. "Most human beings would grow mad and insane from the power coming from that ring." Merlin stated. "But, you didn't. You fought back to keep a hold of yourself?" "Yes..." Claire answered nervously. Then the term he used finally caught up to her. "Wait, this is a **ring**?" "The Dragon's Ring to be exact." Merlin responded. Claire's expression was of confusion and disbelief. "What? Did you think that we dragons always look like humans? Dragon's only use our human forms to blend in and keep us from being hunted. That thing on your wrist would fit my first finger in my true form." Claire took a shallow gulp from the thought of what he could possibly look like outside of what she already knew.

"So why don't you ever revert back to your true form?" Beetlejuice asked. "That's a story for another time. I believe that your father is on his way to pick Claire up. I'm pretty sure that he'll have a lot of questions if he sees Beetlejuice instead of Ben." Merlin said flatly. He then turned to Claire and said to her, "That ring is dangerous. Once in a while, you will feel it attempt to take over and use you. All it knows is power, it has no concept of the things you know." "The ring is alive?" Claire gasped. "In a way, yes. Don't let the ring control you. If your heart and spirit remain strong, it will eventually stop and be yours to command. But with all power comes a terrible price. Just Remember not to lose yourself to anything."

For the remainder of the time, Merlin taught Claire to focus on her breathing and that the majority of the Dragon Ring's power relies on her emotional fluctuations. The stronger the emotion, the more power she discharges. It wasn't long until there was a knock on the door of the cabin and Claire opened the door to greet her father. By that time, The Seer had vanished and Beetlejuice reverted back into Ben. Laurence escorted Claire to the door and shook Mr. Brewster's hand thanking him for allowing Claire to visit. Claire then proceeded out of the forest and into her father's car for the drive home. During the drive back home, she was given a kind lecture from her father. "You know I don't like it when you go over to his house alone." He said to her. His voice had become less arrogant and pompous and more knowledgeable and caring in the past months that Claire had told her parents that she wished to have them more in her life. "I know daddy, but this was really important. Thanks for letting me go." Claire responded kindly. "Ok, honey. Just don't make a habit out of this alright?" He responded understandingly. There was a moment of silence until Mr. Brewster asked, "How was school?" Claire giggled lightly and began answering him while keeping the fact that she has adventures in another world a secret. "It was good." She answered. "The nurse called me earlier and said you had some kind of panic attack." He blurted out. Claire was surprised slightly and then lowered her head to think about an excuse. "Oh, that." She began, "It wasn't anything serious." "It was serious enough to give you a panic attack." He stated with concern in his voice. Clair's mind now began spinning with excuses. She needed to come up with something and quick. "It... was... just a mouse dad. I'll be fine. I just hate mice, is all." Was her answer at last. She could see her father glaring back at her for a short time until he relented and bought the white lie. "Alright honey. But the next time it happens we'll come and pick you up from school to head to the doctor." He said. Claire could feel her anxiety fade as he continued driving on believing her blatant lie. "Thanks daddy." She finally said.

The car pulled into the driveway and came to a stop in an enormous garage in a particular spot in with about six other imported luxury vehicles that only rich people could possibly afford. Claire exited the Rolls Royce just in time for the ring to attempt to take over her consciousness one again. She felt her wrist begin to burn intensely and another rush of power and strength fill her up and begin to push its way to the surface. She quickly snagged her backpack and rushed to get inside the house without her father seeing her run away. With a successful escape, she made her way as best as she could, staggering and struggling to stay conscious, to the small archery range in her backyard which was about seven acres long and three acres wide. The archery range was only one hundred and fifty yards long with a concrete patio and steel fence separating around six range booths that were each around seven feet wide. The patio itself was around forty five feet long and six feet wide. Each booth was equipped with various items to safely practice and store archery equipment. Along the backside of the patio, chairs were set for bystanders to safely watch. It was there that Claire collapsed to rest her body as the last the remains of her physical strength fled from her. She sat down in one of the chairs close by and leaned back her head. She silently cried to herself in pain as the bracelet ceased to relent on its onslaught of corrupting power. Claire began to feel her soul twist and warp under its unceasing pressure until she finally blacked out.

Lydia and Ben met Prudence on the way to Claire's house to see just how she was doing. The three of them agreed that it would better if they all went together, that way any of them who didn't faint from gawking at the house hold could snap the others back to reality and remind them of why they went to Clair's house in the first place.

They all momentarily made it to the front gates of the house only to notice that the entire house was surrounded by tree hedges with a great brass gate serving as the front entrance. Lydia felt in between two of the trees only to have her hand stopped by a brick wall. Prudence and Ben were in amazement at the mere sight of the front gate however, Lydia didn't let the awesomeness of the sight distract her from her friend. She looked around for something to communicate with the household and found a speaker box with two buttons. She promptly pressed the button with the word buzzer beside it and heard a low buzzing noise come from it. Moments later, they heard a suave and well mannered man's voice come from the speaker asking, "Yes, who is this?" "We're here to see Claire, sir. We're friends of hers and are worried about her from school. May we please come in?" Lydia answered the voice as politely as she could. "One moment, please." The voice said. Moments of silence later, the voice came back answering, "I've spoken with the mistress. Yes, you may enter." The moment the voice had finished talking the brass gates began to swing open by themselves and Prudence, Ben and Lydia all gasped in awe at the sight of the house. An enormous house in a great distance as the front yard was almost as large as the back. In mere moments, a man in a tuxedo uniform drove up in an eight seated tour shuttle. "Please climb aboard." The man said. His voice exactly like the voice they heard on the intercom. As the three of them boarded onto the shuttle, the man began to introduce himself, "Good evening and welcome to the Brewster residence. I am Edward Julian. It is so nice to see Miss. Claire make such wonderful friends." And before any one of them could answer, the lengthened golf cart was off, following the path that it originally came from.

Once the cart neared close enough to the incredibly large mansion, Lydia began to feel something in the back of her mind. She looked over to Ben, noticing that he was glaring at her with his own worry, as if he felt the same thing buzzing in the back of his own skull. Ben nodded at Lydia to confirm her suspicions and she turned to Edward. "The backyard." "Excuse me?" He asked, indicating that he needed her to repeat her request. "I think Claire might be in the backyard. She told us that she likes to shoot arrows sometimes as a hobby. Could you take us there first please?" Lydia elaborated. Edward gazed into Lydia's eyes through the rear-view mirror for a moment to gage her response through his own half laden eyes. When he could see the genuine worry in her expression he responded to her, "As you wish Miss..." "Lydia. I'm Lydia Deetz" She quickly introduced herself. "As you wish Miss. Deetz." Edward then repeated and continued on, heading for the expansive mansion's backyard.

It took some time to make it around the house utilizing the many stone paths that separated the various flower gardens. If you looked at it from an eagle's point of view, the design would look Victorian in nature. In time, they made it to the backyard, the feeling in the back of Lydia's head buzzing more intensively the closer they got. The butler stopped the cart alongside the path as it ended to the left side of the house and Lydia was the first one off and rushing to help her friend. 'This feeling in my head. Could it be Beetlejuice? Are these kinds of things a result of the pact?' These questions ran through her mind over the buzzing mildly distracting her from the worry over her friend and in some cases made it worse. She turned the corner just in time to see Claire laying on the concrete patio of her little archery range with a brilliant aura of light surrounding her body and her eyes glowing in the same manner. Lydia quickly ran up to her friend and immediately noticed the bracelet glowing red as if it was molten hot. Lydia reached to attempt to remove the trinket from her friend's arm but was met with an electric shock as resistance.

End of Season 2 Episode 6


	7. Episode 27: The Price of Power - Part 1

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 27: The Price of Power – Part 1**

Claire's friends resorted to calling to her to see if there was a chance to wake her up from her sleeping state. With anyone who tries to touch her getting shocked by the Dragon's Ring, there was little else they could do. She simply lie there unconscious with her eyes wide open and glowing from within, her body also surrounded in a blanket of light. Edward, at one point, accompanied the children to Claire and was astonished when he found her glowing on the patio of her archery range. He soon opted to keep the lord and lady of the estate as clueless as possible.

From within Claire's own mind, she found herself surrounded in the coils of a silver Chinese dragon. The coils surrounded her with ten feet to spare on all sides, its razor sharp spine on its back and sharp claws on its four feet. The dragon coiled around at least three times before it lifted its head to gaze at the blonde girl. The body was at least five and a half feet around with scales about the size of grapefruits. His eyes were ruby colored and seemed to contain a brilliant fire behind them. It spoke without so much as opening its mouth, "Tell me young one, what makes you worthy of my power?" Claire was frightened and yet soothed by the beast's voice. It was dark and rigged but also held an heir of wisdom within it. Claire hesitated before answering the great dragon, "T...to be honest, I'm terrified of this power." She thought for a quick second and then quickly and in a mild worry asked, "Why me?" "There is no reason as to why beyond that your spirit was compatible. However, simply because you're compatible, that doesn't make you worthy. So I ask again. What makes you worthy of my power?"

"Claire, Claire, wake up!" Lydia shouted to her friend. She stayed a safe distance form her to avoid being shocked. Little did they realize, a sinister shadow looming over them, a presence that appeared out of nowhere, sinister intent gleaming in his eyes. Grimnak opened a projection gate in Clair's back yard, sensing a strong power taking hold and moving in while devising an evil plot.

Claire nearly panicked with an attempt to think of a good reason, believing that the great dragon would eat her if she gave the wrong answer or took too long in answering, until the dragon soothed her anxieties by telling her, "Take your time little one. You'll be in a suspended meditation until you figure out for yourself why you are worthy. In the mean time I suggest you reflect on what's the most important to you."

It took only moments before Grimnak knocked out Ben. Using the element of surprise to his advantage, he took out Prudence first, and Ben second. Suddenly, Lydia found herself out matched and backed into a corner. Grimnak however, used a spell to trap her in a cage of shadows rather than attempting to attack her outright. After disabling the three friends, he continued on, not even uttering a single word, toward Claire, who was still in forced meditation. He stood before her and closed his eyes, waving his arms slowly as if he were conducting an orchestra. Slowly, Claire began to levitate, similar to a magician's magic show, and when she was about waist high to him he then began changing the motion of his hands to resemble a light push. Claire then began to hover forward in the direction that Grimnak mimicked with his hands, almost as if he were actually pushing her in that direction.

Inside Claire's head she began to wander around to attempt to figure out the dragon's riddle. She found herself wandering out of the darkness and into another world that looked vaguely familiar. The land before her held rolling hills of green grass a stone castle far in the distance. "I recognize this place!" Claire exclaimed. "This is Scotland. My parents brought me here once when I was four. I remember the people were really nice and there were plenty of folk tales." As her memory became clearer, images began coming into focus. Animals could then be seen grazing on the hillside people looked to be tending their flocks and a vehicle could be seen chugging along with a little blonde girl pressing her face against the window excited and inquisitive. "These are my memories." Claire muttered to herself in realization. The car came to a gradual stop as the Brewsters exited their vehicle and little Claire ran up to pet the sheep and the parents went to shake hands with the shepherd. The small girl tripped and fell on her face in the grass but immediately shot back up to quell her excitement, laughing and squealing the whole way. After a while of petting and feeding the sheep, the family packed back into the car and continued on their journey.

Claire shed a small tear in reliving this happy memory. Suddenly, as if sand swept away by a storm, the image went black once again and she found another memory of her first day of grade school and her parents weren't even there to wish her farewell. It was the servants that did so. Claire began to feel depressed at watching the memory pass by as she watched the saddened little blonde girl solemnly walk out the door and into the luxury car. Again, as sand in the storm, the image blew around reshaping itself into another image. This time it was her first day of high school and her original posse flocked around her complimenting her hair, her eye color and how pretty she was. Claire smirked at the nostalgia, she finally felt as if she had something to belong to. Bolstering her confidence slightly she began to act the part of the snotty rich kid, trying to hide the loneliness buried in her soul. Then Lydia Deetz, the gothic girl who looked broken and depressed, and Ben Juice and the cute Australian boy that every other girl swooned at, came in about three months into the school year. She witnessed Ben fend off Adrian and his gang and immediately imagined her in Lydia's place with the hero protecting her. Another outlet to ease the loneliness she secretly felt.

Grimnak began to take Claire away, tossing the servants that tried to stop him easily to the side. Ever nearer he came to his portal, knowing that he couldn't take her through but that she possibly had enough power locked in that bracelet to give him back his ability to utilize dragon gates, allowing him to freely move from realm to realm without restrictions once again. What he didn't see was Beetlejuic and Lydia transformed began slowly rising from their unconscious state. With her newly sharp claws, Lydia raced after Grimnak, hissing and rearing to strike at his head with Beetlejuice close behind her. As a silent striking team, the two closed in on him fast and he was barely able to turn around before Lydia buried her claws into the back of Grimnak's neck breaking his spell and dropping Clair to the ground. The intensely sharp pain shot through him like five knives piercing his flesh and before Beetlejuice could get in his own strike, Grimnak shouted something in his native language that sounded similar to dragon roars and growls. Suddenly, an invisible force launched Lydia off of Grimnak's back and flung Beetlejuice forty feet and flat on his back. Lydia however, landed on her feet and charged back in relentlessly. Grimnak quickly concentrated and used a concussion spell of his own design to utilize invisible force to fend off the crazed girl. The shock wave produced from his palm stopped her in her tracks and forced her back a few feet she then looked at Grimnak with the thrill-of-the-hunt burning in her eyes as if she now regarded him as some sort of prey.

Beetlejuice had regained his senses by now and charged in to attack as Lydia stood straight up and screamed in a high pitched demonic bat scream toward the sky. When Beetlejuice heard the scream he simply stopped in his tracks and screeched back, his voice noticeably lower than Lydia's. Both then began screeching in anger at each other, like wild animals readying to fight to determine the leader of the pack. Grimnak slowly backed toward his projection gate trying not to catch their attention. However he accidently kicked Claire in her ribs and received an electric shock as a result. He jarred his foot back slightly and jumped to maintain his balance. He then slowly turned when he noticed that the screeching had stopped, only to realize that both Lydia and Beetlejuice were then staring at him with new bloodlust in their eyes and low growls from their throats.

Claire began witnessing another memory, the one where she finally spoke to her school crush and spoke with him. He seemed so wise and kind to her that she just had to thank him for his advice and everything he did for her. So she planted a small kiss on his lips. With slight embarrassment evident on her face, Claire began remembering how disappointed she felt when she found out that Ben was Beetlejuice and that **he** was more than four hundred years old.

Just when she thought that she had seen enough of her life, and had her answer, she heard the dragon say from the darkness, "You've now seen and remembered events from your own side of the story. Now witness another side. Say the name and you shall know." Claire was confused now and began asking, "What does that mean? Like, if I say Bertha's name..." In the middle of her questions, she began to see an image come into focus. Just like her own memories, she began to become part of someone else's life. "This is the price." She heard the dragon say. "To have knowledge of those closest to you. To know their secrets, their shame, remorse, sadness, joy, and even their pain. However, if they find out, it's proven likely that they may fear and reject you for your knowledge and even hate you for knowing their secrets."

"Then I don't want to know their secrets." Claire blurted out as the scene of Bertha's first exposure to Drakenfield played out in front of her. Claire watched as the little twelve year old Bertha picked up on it in a flash and defeated some of the best players in the store with a quickly built deck out of spare cards and figures she bought then and there. 'That's amazing.' She thought to herself after watching Bertha play and win for the third time in a row. 'I had no idea how much of a genius she really was.' The more she thought about it, the more she found herself watching, unable to resist seeing her friend's lives and secrets play out in front of her like a movie on the silver screen. Eventually Claire shook herself out of her curiosity and shouted up into the air, "I can't see any more of this. You realize that I'm a gossip girl. Knowing this much about my friends would be too much of a temptation." She began attempting to clear her mind as much as she could until one name popped into her head. 'Lydia, I could use some advice right about now.' She thought to herself not even realizing that she thought it aloud. Suddenly, she found herself standing close to a road in a small mountain town, the air brisk and cold, the smell of pine trees fresh in the air and the bite of the snow crisp across her skin. Claire closed her eyes to feel the exotic atmosphere. It was quite soothing despite how cold it was and Claire allowed the air to clear her thoughts.

Suddenly she was distracted by the headlights of two vehicles, one swerving into the oncoming lane and the other swerving to avoid it only to be rammed by a larger vehicle traveling faster than it should have been. Claire watched in horror as the small green vehicle crumpled like a newspaper and was shoved a great distance before it stopped. The man of the vehicle that had drifted and caused the accident went to inspect the damage and calling for the paramedics. Hesitantly, Claire moved in on the passenger side of the mangled vehicle and peaked in to see a beautiful woman in her mid to late thirties with black hair protecting her eight year old daughter. The two had a striking resemblance and Claire immediately knew the young girl. "Lydia?" she gasped.

Grimnak fought hard to fend off attacks from both Beetlejuice and Lydia. Recalling how ferocious they were before, he kept his guard up hoping that they would tire out soon. Lydia and Beetlejuice slashed at his invisible shield intent on breaking through and tearing him asunder. Hisses and gruff roars erupted from their throats, telling all who could hear how wild and dangerous they were. The claw holes in Grimnak's neck remained ever present, yet never bleeding, paining him none-the-less. In a last ditch effort to thwart the two wild demons, Grimnak began mumbling something to himself in his native language and aimed the palm of his right hand at the still unconscious Claire. Claire then was covered in a bluish white light and vanished from the back yard, transported to another location just in time to watch as his barrier spell failed and collapsed under the relentless brutality of both Lydia and Beetlejuice. In a flash they were on him, Lydia snagging the doppelganger by the face with her right hand while Beetlejuice dug his claws into its stomach and left arm. With a quick jerk, Lydia thrust her arm upward, ripping off the head of Grimnak's temporary image while Beetlejuice yanked off its arm. Instantly, the doppelganger of Grimnak scattered into dust and vanished from sight as the gate closed in on itself in a torrent of silver flame. A small thud could be heard as the energy sealed off the majority of Claire's backyard from Grimnak's reach.

Claire stared in shock as she watched as the paramedics wrenched open the mangled green vehicle with the Jaws of Life and pulled Lydia's mother onto a gurney covered in her own blood and loaded into the back of an ambulance for the trip to the hospital. Before, Claire could even figure out what was going on, she found herself sitting in the ambulance on the trip with Lydia's mother. She was strapped to the gurney and the paramedics were frantically working to keep her alive. The trip seemed to go on forever as the woman lie there struggling to regulate her breathing and just barely clinging to life. Slowly, the woman turned to look to ward Claire as if she could see her. "So, you're one of my daughter's friends?" She asked wearily. Claire looked to both sides not realizing that the woman was actually speaking to her. Her voice was soft and weak. Barely audible and Claire was surprised that the woman could even see her. She gingerly moved up to the woman to hear what she had to say next. Again it was extremely weak and soft. "Please, take care of her." She asked into Claire's ear before her eyes closed and the paramedics pulled into the hospital emergency garage. The heart monitor they had the woman hooked up to finally fell flat, never to respond to anything more. The woman died in the ambulance parking lot, she never made it inside. Claire found a flood of tears encompass her cheeks, tears that refused to stop as Claire's shock turned into remorse. She sat crying in the darkness that soon engulfed her surroundings mourning the life that had just slipped away in front of her.

"Lives are governed individually, but each life touches others and influences the paths we decide to walk. Now tell me little one, what makes you worthy to use my power?" The dragon once more asked the weeping Claire. "No more." Claire sobbed. "What?" The dragon responded slightly surprised. "**No more**!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. The dragon reared back in fright when she screamed and continued watching as she fell to her knees, crying in her hands. The dragon didn't respond. He didn't know how. "For eons, those who came into contact with my power never ordered me to stop my tests. Most of them continue onto the final test and allow me to show them a glimpse of their future." "No more." Claire repeated while continuing to sob in her hands. The dragon remained speechless as he continued to watch the young blonde girl bawl.

Lydia and Beetlejuice circled around Claire as she lay on the ground unconscious. Lydia crept up to the blond girl to sniff at her like a wild dog when a small shock surged through her nose making her flinch back. In a small fit of anger, Lydia took a swipe at Claire with her right hand and was met with an even greater shock that literally threw her back four feet. Lydia quickly regained her footing and looked at her hand only to find it singed.

"Very well young one. You pass my tests. Now choose the form in which to concentrate my power." Claire slowly lifted her head, confused as to the meaning of the dragon's words. "Choose the form?" She asked to the black space surrounding her. The silver dragon came crawling out of the shadows lifting its massive body around with its powerful legs and once again coiled itself around Claire in the same manner as before. "But I thought that I needed to tell you why I was worthy of your power." She added to her earlier question. "Indeed you did, young one. But rather telling me with words, you caused me to think back on those who commanded me as opposed to simply used my power. By making me rethink my methods you earned your worth. But be warned, such power has a dangerous price. Never lose sight of who you truly are, little 'gossip girl'. Now you may choose the form in which is best to help you concentrate such tremendous power." The dragon responded.

End of Season 2 Episode 7


	8. Episode 28: The Price of Power - Part 2

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 28: The Price of Power – Part 2**

The sky grew darker with every minute that passed by. A storm was coming in and the two demons began circling each other once again to establish the more dominant of them. Rearing to strike and destroy without mercy, they glared and bore their teeth at each other pacing slowly, sizing up each other as an opponent, figuring out who will be the first to initiate the battle. Lydia roared at Beetlejuice and Beetlejuice roared back at Lydia.

From within the reaches of Claire's mind, she began to think hard at what she wanted to do with the power that was now granted her, the silver dragon laying its head close to her. His eyes held a deep wisdom that she had never seen in any creature before. However, she noticed that he also held a deep sadness, as if he had seen wars and death first hand. She could see nearly his entire soul behind his large eyes, the experiences he might have witnessed, the failures he couldn't prevent, lives lost as a direct result of his gift of power. Truly a magnificent creature that lay before her, mysterious and wise, however was learning just now the most about compassion and kindness due to the madness that others had succumbed to when harnessing such a gift.

The rain came pouring down upon their heads, drenching their hair and leaving it flat against the heads of Beetljuice and Lydia. They continued to circle each other closer and closer together. Waiting for the other to take the first strike, waiting to ambush the other and show their strength before slaying their prey. Beetlejuice finally lunged toward Lydia. Lydia dodged left and reared to strike at her assailant when her instincts told her of something powerful arriving. She turned her head to her right when she was struck in the head by something solid. Beetlejuice found himself also feeling the blow and looked to the assailant while Lydia fell to her knees and then looked to see who struck her. There, standing alone was The Seer, carrying a branch from a tree that he had acquired before approaching the two quarreling beasts. He eventually realized that he most likely had placed himself in a worst-case scenario. Merlin then began slowly backing away while keeping the branch in prime striking position.

"What about your past?" Claire asked the dragon before further thinking of how to properly use the power that now had been given her. The dragon's eyes widened with surprise before he said' "None of my wielders had ever given a thought to my past. Some reveled in the future to try and turn the fortune of others in to a living hell for petty reasons. Some even started wars out of fear of the past. But none ever asked me what I had experienced. Why do you wish to know young one? I had already granted you the power. And yet now you ask about my past." Claire lowered her eyes to look at her shoes with nervousness and solemn sadness before replying, "Your eyes. They just look so sad. I just hoped to keep them from getting sadder." The dragon at first became insulted at the sentiment but stopped and began to understand her once a tear rolled down her cheek. "Young wielder, mine is a long story, one of many lives and forgotten ages. I have seen wars fought and lives lost. I have been there when kingdoms rose and empires fell. My sadness, child, comes from those who used my power to destroy." As the words left his lips, the scenery once again changed. This time it changed into a fiery wasteland, void of any signs of life until a small boy, about the age of seven, began running across the field as if excited about something. He ran and ran until he found himself catching his breath near an old straw hut. He pounded on the door calling out, "Mommy, mommy! Come look what I found!" The mother came and opened the door to the hut and gazed as the small boy showed his mother a chunk of silver about as large as his head.

The scene then leapt forwarded to when the boy became an adult. Now he clutched his dead mother in his arms, sobbing over his loss. He soon raised his head with such an angry look to his eyes, revenge burning behind them ever so strongly. He snatched his treasure from his childhood, now only half the size it once was, and carried it to an unknown place deep in the mountains and lost in the trees. There he met with a creature that kept itself placed in the shadows of a large tree hole. Only its eyes were visible. "I once heard that you could make any magical item." He addressed the mysterious creature." A female voice greeted him, "You heard right. But you seem to have forgotten you manners." She responded. "Forgive me, but I didn't come here for pleasantries." The boy said. "Can you craft this into a trinket that will grant me the power to right what has been wronged against me? If so then you may keep all that is left over." As he spoke, he held out the silver from his childhood. The creature seemed to study the chunk of silver for quite some time before she spoke, "Such a history in that piece of silver. It has watched you grow up and now grieves for your decisions. If I craft using this material, you may not like the path you travel down with it by your side. Do you still want me to do it?" "I'll travel down any path if I can stop all of this senseless slaughtering." The boy countered.

The scene then began to shift to pivotal points from when the boy received his trinket and gave payment of the remainder of the silver to the creature and stalked away with the look of bloodlust in his eyes. The boy then placed the trinket around his wrist when he felt his body began to fill with power, so much power that it began to transform his very physical structure. He became as a beast, scaly and reptilian in nature. His mind was filled with wisdom and he could feel the flame of rage build up in his breast. His arms became forelegs and he then sprouted a pair of wings and a tail. His voice turned to that if a great roar, mighty and fiercer than a lion. His vision enhanced, as well as his hearing and his teeth then sharpened to points. His hair wove together to create horns as he began to increase in size. Thus, came into existence the first dragon.

Scenes flew by as Claire watched the dragon decimate armies and topple kingdoms. He trampled many innocent victims in his way with only his long deceased mother on his mind, never knowing exactly who was responsible for her demise and now unable to ask in his original tongue "who" and "where". Many attempted to kill him to end his tantrum and met with failure until one brave young knight decided to face the beast and end its reign of terror. The battle was fierce until the mighty creature used its tail to throw the young knight aside and into a rock. The dragon was about to bit off the young knight's head when a familiar voice addressed him. "I had told you that you wouldn't like the path you were going to travel down. It is now time that I took back the power I so foolishly gave to you." It was the female voice of the mysterious creature from the forest. The dragon hesitated and backed away from the unconscious knight frightened and now on the defensive. Silently the creature kept to the shadows and lured the dragon into a nearby cave where she quickly removed the trinket that fit so perfectly around his front right middle claw. The moment the trinket was removed the boy felt his tremendous power slip away. He gave out one final roar before his scales began falling off. As the scales fell to the cave floor, they began to puff up and shape themselves into eggs.

"So that's why it came to be known as the 'Dragon's Ring'." Claire said in realization. "After that, the eggs hatched and new dragons were born. My creator then used another one of her creations to move these eggs to the Neitherworld before they all hatched. However, during transport, some of the eggs hatched and the dragons wandered off. As for the rest of them, she taught the remainder how to utilize the powers given to them from the ring. As long as I exist, dragons will always have incredible powers. They are a part of me as I am a part of you now." The dragon stated. "So if the dragons are linked to you, why do you need to be linked to me?" Claire asked. "Every so often I need to pair up with a compatible soul to replenish my strength. I am after all the spirit of the dragon that first wore the ring." The dragon said to her. Realization kicked in and Claire gasped as it hit her. "So that's why you seemed so sad." Claire whispered to herself. "Yes child, I paid a deep price for causing so much harm and destruction. And I've been regretting in my actions ever since, only able to watch as others make the same mistake I did, unable to communicate once they choose the form in which to harness the power." The dragon solemnly stated before speaking once again, "But, you see different from the others. None have been interested in **my** story. They just seem to be interested in the power given to them at no cost. Such destruction and such agony." Claire was again about to cry as she continued to hear the story behind the silver dragon in front of her. Sadness and despair wrought her soul as she wiped away her tears and finally said, "Bow and arrow." The dragon looked at her puzzled. "I'd like to use your power in the form of a bow and arrow. I've always been able to focus my thoughts, my frustrations, and my wishes into an arrow knocked onto the string of a bow. And as I send the arrow flying, it makes me feel as if I send away my thoughts to the appropriate destination." "So you would like to focus your thoughts into an arrow made up of power. And you shall launch said arrow from a bow made up of the same power." The dragon said as he put the pieces of the puzzle together. "And I promise that I won't hurt any innocent people." Claire then added to her earlier statement. The dragon thought about her proposal for a few minutes and then decided, "So be it. You shall from now on utilize my power in the form of a bow and arrow. Now remember your thoughts and feelings will be placed into the arrow. If you wish to heal an allies injuries it shall be done, if you wish for the arrow to pierce through the entire earth itself, it shall happen." The dragon pronounced. "Provided you can concentrate for eighty days...?" He then joked. Claire giggled at the dragon's sense of humor and now began to see the reflection of hope and pride in his eyes before she was enveloped in a white light.

Claire's eyes shot open as she found herself lying on her back in her backyard. She heard both high and low pitched growls and lifted herself up to investigate, finding herself with a mild headache. When her senses came back she noticed both Beetlejuice and Lydia acting like wild beasts and stalking Merlin like some sort of prey. Merlin was swinging a tree branch to attempt to keep them at bay but it was only a matter of time before he tired out.

Claire once again looked to her friends and fear began to well inside her very soul. The sight of the two beasts that they had become from losing control of themselves frightened her and she sat frozen, unable to move her legs even if she wished to run. She saw both of them leap into the air to attack the old man as he stumbled forward. Merlin cast a protection spell to attempt to stave them off longer with success but only in a sense that he was protected. The spell forced him to stay in one spot as the two creatures that resembled Lydia and Beetlejuice continued to pummel on his dome of pink light.

Fearing for her life and also fearing for the life of her friends she let the thoughts flash through her mind until the dragon's ring sparked and caught her attention. The rain came down harder and harder as Claire found herself staring frightened at the crazed look of her friends. Then, out of the corner of her eye, the blond girl noticed little Prudence slowly stirring awake from being knocked unconscious. Beetlejuice, in his crazed state, noticed Claire turn her gaze and saw Prudence pick herself up and decided to pursue the small girl. Worry and fear began to overtake Claire as both Beetlejuice and Lydia now pursued two separate targets. Feeling a spark from the bracelet, Claire turned to look at the trinket when she noticed two curved beams of golden light branching off of it in the shape of a bow. Remembering the words of the dragon, she aimed the fist of the hand that had the dragon's ring on it at Lydia. After extending the pointer and middle finger forward as if aiming a gun, she concentrated on stopping Lydia without harming her. Imagining a rope tying her up, she reached her right hand to the ring and pulled back as if drawing the string on a bow. A thin string made of light drew back with her hand and as she drew back, a beam of silver light connected from the ring to her drawing hand, forming an arrow. Claire focused on her image as she released the golden string, letting loose the silver light arrow.

The arrow flew swift and true, striking its target and forming the image in her mind. The silver arrow grew in length and wrapped around Lydia's torso, pinning her arms to her side and continuing to wrap around her ankles pinning her legs together and causing her to fall to the ground in her face. Claire then aimed a second arrow, same image in mind, and launched it at Beetlejuice. The arrow flew true once more and yielded the same result. Beetlejuice and Lydia were trapped and struggling to free themselves. Prudence found a crazed Beetlejuice nearly biting at her feet when her senses were finally all gathered. Merlin steeled his nerves with his near death experience and cast his sleeping spell onto Beetlejuice first since Lydia would most likely be protected to a certain degree by the spider silk and once Beetlejuice was put to sleep, Lydia immediately reverted back to her old self and fell unconscious.

Lydia woke up late afternoon in one of the rooms in Claire's house. She rubbed the back of her neck, as she sat up in the luxury queen sized bed with pearl white covers and pillows, trying to rub away the stress there. She allowed her vision to adjust to the light of the setting sun from the window to her left. For some reason her body still felt tired and cranky, her head throbbed and she even felt guilty for something she could barely remember. Lydia slowly slid herself out of the bed, still wondering where she was, her legs felt sore as her feet touched the ground. She slowly stood upright as she found that the rest of her body was sore as well. Achingly walking toward the door, dazed and only half awake, she noticed her reflection in a nearby vanity for a brief second. What she saw wasn't her exactly but her demon form when Beetlejuice loses control. The scarlet eyes looked back at her with devilish perception until Lydia blinked and saw her own reflection staring back. Startled, Lydia rubbed her eyes and shook the cobwebs out of her head before looking back into the mirror. Again, her reflection stared back at her. The whites of her eyes were white, her teeth were normal, and her fingernails were at their usual, well groomed length.

A knock at the bedroom door suddenly brought Lydia out of her confusion. She gasped in shock as she spun around to look toward the sound just as the door slowly creaked open to reveal one of Claire's maids enter in. "Miss Deetz, Miss Brewster is waiting for you downstairs." The lady said in a soft, well mannered tone. She then added, "When you're ready, I'll lead you there." Lydia took one more look into the mirror and finally noticed that she was wearing a white nightgown rather than her black clothes. And her hair was even down, her mother's ribbon nowhere in sight. She looked around the room from where she stood and asked, "Where's my mom's ribbon?" The maid then walked over to a small end table near the bed and gestured her hand toward it saying, "It is right here Miss Deetz with the rest of your clothes." Lydia sighed in relief and walked over to see that her outfit was indeed sitting on the end table, neatly folded and cleaned, the smell of fresh linen growing stronger as she approached.

The maid walked over to the nearby vanity as Lydia quickly changed into her outfit and was about to tie her mother's ribbon into her hair when the maid gracefully ask her, "Would you like me to brush your hair for you Miss Deetz?" Lydia turned around and saw her standing by waiting for an answer. She thought about it for a few seconds and decided to take the opportunity to let herself be pampered for a few minutes before heading downstairs. She casually walked over and allowed the maid to brush away. The moment Lydia stepped in front of the mirror she noticed that her hair was just past her shoulders in length.

Prudence sat to Clair's right at the dining table set for around thirty people. Ben sat two chairs away from Clair's left while the rest of the chairs remained unoccupied. Clair's father asked her a few questions about her behavior and all Claire could muster up was most likely a stress attack. All three of them were eventually left in the room to wait for Lydia to come down. Ben sat nervously swaying his legs back and forth while twiddling his thumbs. Prudence pulled out a science book from her backpack and began to work on her homework while Claire laid her head down in her arms and tried to sleep away some of the stress form the day dreaming another encounter with the majestic silver dragon.

End of Season 2 Episode 8


	9. Episode 29: Bertha Returns

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 29: Bertha Returns**

The time they all stood waiting at the nearest airport nearly drove Prudence insane. Her best friend was finally coming home from a card tournament in Oregon and she was anxious to hear all about the trip. The airport wasn't very big, but it was still bustling with people going in and out of the flight terminals catching and disembarking flights every day. Ben, Prudence, Claire and all of their parents were there to greet Bertha and her mother back home. They were lucky that Bertha's flight was landing on a Saturday. Bertha's father stood close by the group to greet his wife and daughter home from their two week trip. "Look, there she is." Claire finally said after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Prudence smiled happily as she finally saw her tall, skinny friend walking though the crowd and toward them. "Hey!" Lydia called to her friend and Bertha turned her gaze to where she heard the call from. Noticing the large crowd there to welcome her back she smiled brightly and rushed to be embraced in a large group hug.

"How was Oregon?" Claire asked, curiosity glistening in her eyes like stars in a country night sky. "Pretty much like Lydia said. There were a lot of trees until you got into the city. Portland is **huge**." Bertha responded as she reached behind her to take hold of her backpack. She unzipped the pack to reveal it stuffed full of souvenirs such as little bracelets and friendship necklaces from various kiosks and stores. As well in her backpack she had also two large folders filled with Drakenfield cards, obviously the figures were in her luggage. Bertha, one by one, handed out the bracelets and necklaces to her friends, each of the girls giggling and awing at the way they looked. Ben however was less than impressed. "This is nice Bertha, but got anything for a guy?" He asked politely, trying not to look ungrateful. Bertha turned to look at her mother with a smile, almost as if they knew he would say what he said. Ms. Hennings then unzipped her own roll around suitcase and reached in to reveal a black leather Australian hat complete with fake crocodile teeth and snake skin patterned rim band, the then quickly plopped it on his head. "Bertha bought that at an outdoor sports convention when we went to visit the Expo Center after the tournament. She thought you'd love it." Lydia and the other girls looked in awe at his butch new leather hat. "That looks expensive." Lydia finally said while Ben remained speechless. "It was." Bertha answered.

"Speaking of the tournament," Ms. Hennings added in, "Tell your friends how you did." Bertha looked down as if shame overcame her completely. She then shot her head up with a smile and blurted out, "I came in second place!" They began congratulating her on her victories as the parents escorted everyone back to their vehicles with Mr. Hennings saying, "Alright, you can catch up later. Right now we need to collect the rest of your things before they get lost in baggage claim." The group of friends turned and made their way to the baggage claim. Little did they notice a shadow disembark nearly the same time they began to leave. A cocky smile painted on his face as he glared at the Hennings family as they turned the corner.

The drive back home was uneventful as they piled into one of Clair's limousines for the ride back home. "Thank you, Mr. Brewster, for the ride home. This limousine is amazing." Ms. Hennings said as she took her seat next to her husband. "So why don't you take a limo to school?" Lydia asked Claire. "Honestly, it's too flashy and my dad never drives anything except the Rolls Royce." She answered. "That's enough of my quirks young lady." Mr. Brewster piped in, startling Claire slightly. Everyone laughed at the comedic timing of the scenario for a short while until Prudence turned back to Bertha and said, "We sure missed you, Bertha. Those two weeks were kinda boring while you were gone." Lydia, Claire and Ben all rolled their eyes in unison, realizing that her statement was far from the truth. "So what was the tourney like?" Ben asked sporting off his new leather hat. "It was so awesome." Bertha responded excitedly. "There were around three hundred people there all set to play Drakenfield. The tournament started off with some preliminary rounds to eliminate competitors down to fifty. After that the real tournament began. It was a two loss elimination circuit." "What does that mean?" Claire innocently asked. "Oh, that means if you lose twice you're eliminated from the tournament." Prudence stated for her friend. Bertha smiled at her friend and continued her explanation. "The competition was fierce, and the other players were good. The way the game's developer designed the tournament was that he had a custom rug done with the design of an enormous island. I mean it was **huge**, big enough to allow each player to sit at a table on it and identify the land mass they were playing on. The rules during the semi finals explained why he did that." "So what was with the giant island rug?" Lydia asked slightly confused. "If you used a field card identical to the land mass you were standing on during play, your monsters and characters took only half damage. Sort of like a field bonus for playing in the right area." "I'll bet **that** made it interesting." Prudence stated as Ben whistled his mild interest.

"So what did you get for second place?" Claire asked curiously. "About thirty five hundred dollars." Ms. Hennings blurted out. All of the limo's occupants other than the driver and Ms. Hennings opened their eyes wide as they turned their gaze back to Bertha. "All of **that** for a tournament?" Claire asked surprised. "Yah, but the champion got ten thousand dollars and the title 'World Drakenfield Champion'." Bertha answered solemnly. "He probably has that much in cards." Lydia said under her breath so that everyone could hear her. Laughter could be heard muffled from the outside of the limousine as it pulled up to Prudence's house. They all bid good bye to their friends before continuing on to Bertha's house. After that, it was Ben's turn and he was dropped off at the side of the road closest to the woods. Lydia and her parents were the last to be dropped off. They waved good bye to the Brewsters as the limo drove off with Delia nearly heartbroken and whimpering, "please come back" to the limo.

Monday arrived and it was at the end of school when the girls got back together to discuss the tournament in detail, as well as her trip to Oregon. "As I said before, the tournament was awesome. Some of the players used cards that I've never even seen before and some even used cards from the newest expansion, 'Dawn's Awakening'. I was in geek heaven." Bertha explained with excitement. "I'll bet." Claire added with slight envy and enthusiasm of her own. Claire apparently was still jealous that Bertha was able to travel even though her parents could afford first class flights for the rest of her life. "My favorite deck was one this kid from Japan built. He utilized a collection called 'The Haunters'. They were ghosts that took possession of opposing creatures when defeated. It was awesome." Bertha continued. Claire became nervous at the mention of ghosts when Prudence noticed. "You know some of our best friends are technically ghosts." She blurted out to Claire. "That doesn't exactly help comfort me right now!" Claire whined. Bertha, Ben and Lydia began to laugh when they heard another kind laugh from outside the school gate.

The kid laughing was about an inch taller than Lydia, but was obviously of Russian decent, his accent thick as he spoke. "Oh, so these are the people you hang out vith, huh?" The kid looked about their age but had silver-white hair that spiked up near the top and was short enough to do so. He kept an heir of arrogance about him as he gazed at Bertha intently. "Little weaklings should not praise second place. Is failure, dah?" "Is failure, **no**! Who are you anyway?" Lydia shot at the mysterious kid. The kid suddenly looked as if he was star struck after Lydia stood up for Bertha. "That's Vadim Vasilyev. He's the World Drakenfeld Champion." Bertha stated in a kind of angry yet somber tone. "Yah, some champion." Ben mumbled under his breath. "The tourney's over mate. Why are y'all here?" "I came to humiliate weakling some more, but now I see new reason to be here." Vadim said while gracefully walking up to Lydia, obviously trying to make himself look handsome. "Forget it pal." Lydia blurted out angrily. "Not if you came here to humiliate my friend." "You should learn to pick better friends." He said as suave as he could. "Strong people like us should keep strong friends, dah." "I said 'forget it'." Lydia sternly said once again. Vadim backed off slightly and turned back to Bertha. "Fine, we settle this with our decks, dah." Bertha suddenly looked sheepish, as he suddenly put her in the spotlight. "Wha, what?" She stammered as Vadim continued his challenge. "If you win, I leave and give you title. If you lose, pretty girl goes on date with me." "Oh, great! I've just been shoved into an episode of the TV show." Bertha sighed while turning to her friend. "What makes you think you can challenge my friend for a date with me?" Lydia began to complain. "Do you mean to tell me that you are better player?" Vadim asked her. Lydia thought about it for a short while and realized that she wasn't going to get out of the situation unless they cooperated with him. Most likely, he'd just stick around until he either got his way or lost to any of them, and Bertha was the only one who knew the game inside and out. "I can't believe that I'm agreeing to this." Lydia grunted. She then turned toward Bertha and said to her, "Kick his butt."

They set up at Claire's house. The enclosed patio in the back yard was perfect for an event between two rivals. Bertha faced off against her adversary as both set their figures and bags of stones aside and then linked their field cards together to create the gameboard. Bertha decided to play a new battlefield she had acquired called "Dragonwing Castle Grounds" while he connected a field card called "Underworld Graveyard". The two were vastly different where the Castle Grounds utilized walls and labyrinth-like pathways, the Underworld Graveyard looked like it was a cemetery on a burning patch of ground. The two shuffled their decks and then handed them to their opponent to be cut. Once the decks were returned to their owners, they were ready to play. They drew their starting six cards and Bertha then picked up the fourteen stones from her reserve as indicated on her field card while Vadim took sixteen from his.

"Lady's first." Vadim said as he gestured to Bertha in a cocky manner. "Uh, thanks." Bertha said as she drew her first card from the top of her deck. She was nervous this time around, even more so than she was at the tournament. "I'll place Life Stone on space C-nine. Then I'll play two 'Dragon Kids', one in D-eight and one in C-four." Bertha announced as she took four of her summoning stones and placed them back in the bag. "My characters suffer from summoning lag so I'll end my turn there." "I don't get it?" Ben said to Prudence. "With all of those walls why would she place her second 'Dragon Kid' so far away from her summoning stone? Why not place both of them to guard your stone?" Prudence looked back at Ben as she answered quietly, "Because of the Summoning Lag. She set up to move her attackers first turn and keep her defenders close by. By placing the soldier in C-four, he then has more of a straight shot to Vadim's field, where D-eight sets up for an ambush form an enclosed corridor." She answered him. Ben scratched his head under his hat as he thought about it, nearly hurting his brain. Vadim placed his Life stone while announcing his every move, just like Bertha had done before. After he played his own cards, the game was underway. Each not backing down and inching their way until the lead character was defeated. By the ninth turn, Bertha was ahead with ten summoning stones to his four until Vadim played a card that doubled his recharge rate for that turn. Suddenly, Bertha found herself against twenty stones to her ten and Vadim still having characters close in proximity to strike. By the time Vadim ended his turn, Bertha found herself at four stones with her turn just beginning. She drew the top card of her deck and gazed to behold her favorite character, the "Diamond Aura Dragon", when the distinct sound of roaring flames could be heard in the room. The sound seemed as if it was coming from far off in the distance of Claire's property just beyond the predicted range of sealed ground for Grimnak's portal. Lo and behold, Grimnak came sauntering through wicked smile on his face as he approached the group.

"What? I thought he couldn't come back!" Prudence exclaimed as she began to make out the silhouette. "I must only seal off a certain area outside. He must have placed a gate as close as he could without crossing boundaries." Ben deduced. Lydia looked back at the frightened and somewhat ignorant Vadim. "We can't fight with him here. We need to find a way to get him out of here before we do anything." Lydia whispered to Ben. By the time she had finished speaking to Ben, Geimnak began picking up the pace and burst out into a dead sprint to keep from wasting too much time. "What do we do?" Prudence whispered to Lydia. When Grimnak thought that he was close enough, he slowed down and noticed the game still in progress. "So," He smiled wickedly, "You like games huh?" He then waved his hands around and focused on one of the tiny plastic figurines on the game board until it flinched and began to move. Inevitably it jumped off of its stand and made its way to Grimnak's side. The figurine was of one of Bertha's little dragons she had called "Demonic Flamebringer Dragon". The black scaled plastic dragon began to grow in size until it was three times the size of Grimnak himself. Black flames began spewing out of its mouth as it began to scream in a high pitched tone as it stood on all four legs with dull bronze claws. Its crimson red eyes glistening like small pools of blood with but a single eerie green slit for its pupil. The gnashing white teeth clunking back together as it snapped its long thin mouth shut. Its horns the same dull bronze as its claws and tail spikes and razor spines along its back.

"You children have been a thorn in my side ever since the first day my brother came to you. This time however, I won't make the same mistake of letting you two transform." He said gesturing to both Ben and Lydia. "Now it's time for all of you to die." Suddenly, the space from behind the group began warping until it formed the dragon's gate Merlin used. Relief washed over the children when the old wizard hobbled through shouting, "Be on your guard children, Grimnak is..." He had finally noticed that his warning was too late after his dragon gate had dissipated. Lydia, trying desperately to maintain what little normality she had left, gently slapped her right palm into her face, covering her eyes and began to silently cry as she said "goodbye" to her once slightly normal life.

Merlin noticed the black dragon rearing to pounce on its prey at its master's request and threw an object at Bertha while shouting, "Catch!" Bertha caught the small object by the chain and finally noticed that it was some sort of strange medallion with a circular aquamarine jewel around an inch and a half in diameter. The jewel was set into the medallion like the glass of a mirror, flush with the silver ornate lining. "What is it?" Bertha shouted back to Merlin only to see him shrug his shoulders in response gesturing "not a clue" back to her.

Grimnak seemed to pay no attention to the small silver medallion and smirked as he set to command his new pet dragon. Ben had set to transform back into Beetlejuice to prepare to fight the large beast until Bertha looked around and spotted her Diamond Aura Dragon figurine. Thinking quickly, she snatched it from the game board and placed it on the medallion thinking to herself "please work" and then shut her eyes, shouting "We need your help, Diamond Aura Dragon!" She pictured the dragon clearly in her head, its fierce sharp teeth, its diamond sharp claws, the shining, glittering wings and its majestic diamond colored scales. The harder she concentrated, the more the creature came into her reality. The dragon was clearly taller than the Demonic Flambringer Dragon of Grimnak's, and its roar rang as if through a valley of singing crystals. Once the dragon made its call, Bertha broke her concentration and opened her eyes seeing her prize dragon come to life. The rest of the girls stared in awe as the sun reflected off of the dragons scales like a living diamond. The creature turned to look at Bertha with its right eye, the wisdom and ferocity evident in its gaze, the desire to protect and serve its controller reflecting with the sunlight. Grimnak thought how impossible such a feat was from a mere human as he beheld the most magnificent creature he had ever seen stand on two legs in front of him. He then pushed back his fear and wonder now desiring the medallion held by the tall, skinny girl. "Kill them!" He shouted seconds before the demonic dragon lunged forward. The Diamond Aura Dragon stepped in and held it back, the two dragons now pushing against each other for dominance.

Bertha and her friends looked on in disbelief and wonder at the two warring titans as Bertha's dragon began to push Grimnak's dragon back, overpowering it. Suddenly it gave one massive heave and lifted the hulking black dragon over its head before throwing it twenty feet away on its back. Bertha then saw her opportunity, an attempt to look epic in front of her friends. She lowered her eyebrows, threw out her right hand to aim her outstretched hand to the intended target and shouted, "Time to finish it off, Prism Blaze!" According to her thoughts, the Diamond Aura Dragon lifted its head high into the air and opened its mouth as its majestic call rang out once again. Pearl-white flames then began to pour out of its mouth before it thrusted its gaze back to the demonic dragon. It thrusted its head in its target's direction as if it needed to throw the flames that came gushing out of its mouth at it. The pearl-white flames spread over the dragon and even out to cover Grimnak. Grimnak screamed in agony as the doppelganger burned to ash and the dragon shrank back to its original form as the little one and half inch tall figurine.

Moments later after all of the excitement calmed down, the dragon gave one last call and then began to shine brighter than ever before gently bursting into what looked like diamond dust that then gently fell like light snow falling to the ground. The scene was so gorgeous that everyone simply stood and allowed the beauty to wash over them. During the silence, Vadim snuck up beside Bertha and said gently to her, "How you do this? Is amazing." Bertha turned slightly defeated to him and simply said, "It's kinda hard to explain." "You held back at tournament, didn't you?" He added. She shot her eyes open in surprise. "I could tell. Is real reason I followed you home. I want real challenge from fierce competitor. Sorry for being prideful." Rather than saying anything back to him, Bertha simply turned her gaze back at the shining dust gently floating down around them, a bright forgiving smile on her face. "He's taking this whole thing awfully well." Ben whispered to Lydia. Lydia simply returned his claim with a slight nod telling him the she didn't want to answer any questions.

The next day, Vadim decided to go back home with his head held high and a secret in his heart while the others were at school. Bertha kept her prize dragon close by her during that day for good luck, while also keeping the medallion Merlin gave her around her neck. Once school was out, they'd all have their questions answered.

End of Season 2 Episode 9


	10. Episode 30: Merlin

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 30: Merlin's Young Face**

Merlin met the children at Ben's home in the woods to answer some questions they had for him. Bertha sat directly in front of Merlin while Claire, and Prudence sat to her right and Ben and Lydia sat to her left. They looked as if they were scattered around the room in front of the fireplace while staying as a group. Bertha was the first to break the silence. "So what exactly is this thing you gave me?" Merlin spoke happily as he explained to her, "I don't have a clue. I think it's a legendary item from ancient times even before me, but I'm most likely wrong. I didn't even know what it was capable of doing until you summoned that creature of yours. For now I think that we should just call it the Mirror Stone until we discover what it's really called." Silence permeated the room as everyone who knew Merlin was flabbergasted at the fact that there was something that he didn't know. The old wizard looked around the room realizing that he was being gawked at. "What?" He asked before realizing why they were so surprised. "Oh come on. I'm old but not that old." He then retorted to the silent insult.

"Do you think that it was created by Arachnis Widow?" Lydia asked with a slight epiphany. "Could be." Merlin stated. "She was well known for her spellwoven artifacts. Most of which were fabric but a great many also were woven with precious metals and stones." He then outstretched his hand to ask Bertha to examine it. Bertha generously handed Merlin the Mirror Stone and he brought the object up to his face to gaze closely at it. He hummed to himself slightly for a time while examining the craftsmanship. "Yes, definitely crafted by Arachnis." He answered as he handed it back. "How can you tell?" Claire asked him. Merlin simply flipped it around and pointed to a tiny spider engraving with the initials A. W. along each side of the spider. "This is how." Merlin stated. The others simply groaned in exasperation.

Bertha was about to take it when she became scared of the kind of power it held. "You keep it. I don't know if I can handle that kind of power." She pleaded. Merlin gently shook his head and handed it back to her, "I can't. If it works for you, it'll **only** work for you. That is the way Arachnis makes her things. Initially she had them made to be used by the direct family of the one she made it for but that soon became too complicated when a soul was destroyed using one of her creations. She soon retrieved all of her spellwoven instruments and rewrote the spell to have the item choose one and only one worthy wielder per generation. She then scattered what she didn't destroy around the Neitherworld and the Outerworld." Merlin answered her. Bertha gingerly took the medallion and gripped it with a new sense of nervous responsibility.

"Perhaps you know something about the spider silk?" Lydia blurted out. "Ah, the last and most elusive of Arachnis' spellwoven articles." Merlin sighed as he leaned back in his chair as if the question had a kind of nostalgia to it. "I'm sorry Lydia, but even I don't know everything about the spider silk. All I know is what you already learned. As well as it was the last thing she created before retiring and going onto permanent hiding." "Maybe we could visit Arachnis and ask her about the spider silk. Naria was willing to erase my soul from existence in order to get at it, and the Angelic Queen even obsessed over studying it and finding more about it. I wanna know what this thing is exactly, why so many psychopaths are willing to get at it, and why its power was so inconsistent." Lydia pronounced. Merlin looked at the group of friends for a short while when he reached inside his robe sleeve and produced three, brown, leather bound books, each with an etching of an angel in the front cover. "Angelic Journals!" Lydia exclaimed. "Now don't get your hopes up. Queen Myra was a scholar and always engrossed in research of some kind. The Angelic Journals are simply records of her discoveries and findings. Her research ranges from the temple where my brother was trapped, to the spider silk, all the way to research on lost souls and even ancient entities presumed trapped under the lands of the Outerworld."

For a time the group studied some of the entries of the journals and found research on lost souls, sand worms, and even some lore of the Neitherworld such as a sand worm queen deep in the desert, said to be so powerful that it could devour lost souls just by looking at them. That research consisted mostly of Myra wandering the sand pits where the sand worms live with an adolescent Naria at her side with no luck as to even locating the creature.

"This is pointless." Lydia finally exasperated in frustration. "Why did you give us these useless journals?" "You asked for knowledge that I didn't have. I told you not to get your hopes up. Besides, I found those just before I joined up with you guys today and hadn't had a chance to view their contents." He retorted. "But you see the future." Lydia snapped. "Watch your tone young lady. I don't **see** the future, that part was made up by the locals of the Neitherworld under superstition. The closest I get to future sight are these prophecies every once in a while and visions from the wind." Merlin himself was beginning to grow angry at her attitude toward him. "Lyds, why are you getting angry at him?" Ben asked her. Lydia calmed herself down before answering him, "I'm sorry. I guess that I'm just fed up with all of the cryptic secrecy. And just want a straight answer for once." Merlin exhaled his own frustrations and then turned to the group and said to them, "There are many things that Arachnis never wanted to be found. Making vital information as scarce as possible to avoid having good people corrupted by power. Not knowing exactly what you are dealing with keeps fear at the forefront of your mind, thus forcing wielders to 'hold back', as it were." Lydia began to wonder if her adversaries had the same amount of information as she did and simply were expressing greed or curiosity. Either way, there was but one thing to focus on now. They needed to find The Sleeper before Grimnak could.

"Merlin, can you repeat that new prophecy for us?" Ben asked. Merlin leaned forward in his chair and repeated the words so engrained in his soul. "The dragon sleeps on the water's edge, upon the stone and light of which he beds. When the name is said and he begins to wake, the light of day he shan't forsake. Upon this day of familiar prize, look in at burnt sand in size. In daylight's conflict awake again, to reunite those close to him. Remember not until that day, when all of light will fade away. A secret kept for ages past, shall awaken and cease the quarrel at last." This time while he recited the prophecy to them Lydia noticed his eyes glaze over as if his soul left his body for a moment. As this happened, she was reminded of the way her mother looked when the paramedics rushed her mother into the emergency room to attempt to revive her. Lydia felt her heart sink as the gloomy memories flooded her mind and a single tear fell down her right cheek.

Ben gingerly placed his hand on Lydia's shoulder, noticing the tear, and asked, "Hey, Lids. You ok?" Startled out of her revere, Lydia slightly jumped and looked at Ben with her heart now racing millions of beats per second for a short time. As her heartbeat slowed down, Lydia could hear Ben trying to apologize to her. She waved her hand toward him as a gesture that she didn't think that apologizing was necessary at the moment. At this time, Merlin had snapped back to reality, having finished the prophecy engrained into his soul. He then began fumbling through his pockets while mumbling to himself. He brought out a great many of objects and nick-knacks, none that caught the eye of Ben more that a small glass sphere with a multicolored flame trapped inside. "Oi! Is that essence of an omni-elemental being?" He blurted out. Merlin stopped for a second and glanced at the Australian teenager then shifted his gaze to the sphere and shot his eyes wide in excited realization. "Oh goodness. I had completely forgotten I had that." The four girls were now confused as to what was exactly the glass sphere. "Eh?" Prudence squeaked out. Snapped back to his reality, Merlin sheepishly grinned and placed it among the things from his pockets, "It's nothing really. Just an ingredient for a potion or a catalyst for certain spells." "Oh no, old man. That is extremely rare to find." Ben countered shifting back into Beetlejuice. He then picked it up out of the bunches of items and showed it off to the girls. "This is the essence of an omni-elemental being. Pretty much concentrated magical energy of every element all at the same time." Beetlejuice explained. "And yet none of them at all." Merlin added. "And," Beetlejuice continued sneering with mild distrust at Merlin, "There are only two ways to acquire it."

Lydia shifted her gaze between Merlin and Beetlejuice before asking, "And how does one get this 'essence of and omni-elemental being'?" Merlin seemed a bit insulted at what Beetlejuice was implying. "The first way to acquire the essence is to have an omni-elemental being grant you their essence as a lost soul." "So they have to die." Claire said under her breath in realization. "The second is to siphon it forcibly, essentially murdering the being if you do it while they're alive. It traps them if they're already a lost soul." Merlin added to his earlier statement. Suddenly, Lydia and the others could understand why Beetlejuice was so distrustful now. "So, how **did** you get this?" Beetlejuice snapped angrily, gesturing to the sphere of rainbow colored flames. "How dare you! What is this 'pick-on-the-old-guy-day'?" Merlin countered and snatched the sphere out of Beetlejuice's hand. "And if you must know, a dear friend gave me this during Naria's reign to keep the power it held out of her cauldron." Lydia shuddered at the mere mention of that sinister pot of boiling brew. "Wait, I thought that you needed **souls** for the cauldron." She asked in realization. Merlin turned to the gothic girl and answered her question back in his calm demeanor. "The souls grant power and strength to the magic she cast. Its direction is the elemental essence you combine with it. That also greatly limits the spell types you could use while the energy remains in the cauldron. If she had acquired this flame," He said holding out the sphere, "She would have been able to cast just about any spell in existence, even immortality or time altering spells." "And what would happen, if she had assimilated it?" Prudence asked. Merlin was caught off guard as he clearly never thought of the consequences of assimilating the essence.

"Naria, could cast lightning bolts and fireballs at any time because she assimilated the souls of those elemental beings. Think of how much power she could have had with the soul of an omni-elemental being." Lydia thought aloud. "You have a point." Merlin stated, "Considering that the essence of an elemental being is literally a part of their soul." "So why don't you just break it and set the being free?" Bertha asked curiously. Merlin looked gingerly at the glass sphere as if looking at a newborn child, "Because, once a soul becomes essence, there is no turning back into a soul. It's the ultimate price for an elemental being."

Later that evening, Merlin continued on walking through the forest close to the wood home he created utilizing his own magic abilities and knowledge of matter manipulation. He hardly realized how far he had traveled when something large tackled him from behind and drove something sharp into his left kidney. Pain surged through him as he felt whatever it was jump off of his back and begin to laugh at first it was a low chuckle but quickly built up to a familiar sinister laugh of triumph. "I can't believe how easy it was to get the drop on you, my brother." Grimnak belched out with dark laughter. Merlin cursed himself for failing to keep track of how far he wandered from the cabin and painfully stood to his feet only to drop back to one knee holding onto his wound with his right hand. "Why, brother? What could possibly be worth injuring your own family for?" He struggled to say through his cringing. Grimnak simply laughed aloud and finally revealed a crazed look that he had hidden away for centuries. "I need power brother. Power to defeat you, power to secure and rule worlds, power to stop the whispers." His gaze, as he spoke, showed the centuries of torment. As if continually trying to please a parent that would never leave him alone but never be satisfied with anything he did. "Can you stop the whispers?" He asked Merlin fully crazed by the torment. Merlin was now officially terrified of his brother, something he had felt only once before in his life. "What do you mean by, 'whispers'?" Merlin asked in fright. "The whispers in my head, dear brother. Oh, I do grow tired of them, but they just don't stop." Grimnak chuckled. "And what do they say?" Merlin asked in a terrified tone, worried for his life and genuinely afraid of his brother. "They say, to end you both."

Merlin ran as fast as he could despite the wound on his back. Terrified of his brother and in need to warn Beetlejuice of the doppelganger cackling and crazed behind him. 'His doppelgangers must heighten various parts of his personality from time to time.' He thought to himself as he hurried in the direction of the cottage, his blood leaving a clear trail for Grimnak to follow. 'At least now his behavior back then makes sense.' A few memories of his personality becoming slowly corrupt over time before he attacked the two brothers came to the forefront of his mind as he continued to run.

Finally the cottage came into view, "Beetlejuice, I need your help." Merlin yelled as loud as he could, his adrenaline keeping him from feeling the effects of his blood loss until his knees buckled and he collapsed in front of the front door, Grimnak's voice echoing through the forest, "Why do you run brother? It's not like I'm going to **kill you**." Betlejuice at last opened the door to see Merlin collapsed in front of him. "Old man!" Beetlejuice exclaimed and hurried to assist him. Merlin held his hand out to signal Beetlejuice that there were more important things to do. "Just stop Grimnak." He said and pointed in the direction of his attacker. Beetlejuice looked up and finally noticed the crazed look on his face. "Did **he** do this to you?" Beetlejuice asked. However, the only response he received from Merlin was an angry and urgent, "Go!"

Beetlejuice hurried to find a way to stop Grimnak's pursuit until there were suddenly two of him, and then four, then eight, then sixteen. Beetlejuice stopped in his tracks as he faced down now thirty two foes at once alone. Surrounded and outnumbered he thought frantically about what to do. Suddenly an idea came to him, "Why don't you all **stick around**!" He shouted with a smile. All of the many Grimnak's grinned at him and one said, "I think not little ant" and attempted to take a step forward only to find himself glued to the ground. "What is this?" He shouted as all of his other selves also found themselves in the same predicament. "Literal Translation. You know I love it."Beetlejuice smirked. "Now all I've gotta do is find the original you and destroy him, then you won't be able to come near my house without breaking view of you projection gate." "And how would you know that?" Grimnak asked questioningly. "When I faced Naria so many years ago, I studied on how to counter duplication spells just in case she tried to use that trick to confuse me." Beetlejuice boasted. Grimnak's laughter could be heard belting out the moment his words were finished leaving his lips. "A good theory little ant, but you forget, the original is actually on the other side of the projection gate. All those you now see are copies. At this moment, you literally would have to destroy us all," As he spoke all of them lifted their feet with such strength that they tore their boots right off of the sticky resin that bound them to the earth and took steps toward him. "And I don't think you can do that." Grimnak finished.

Merlin dragged himself up to the house and propped himself up on the wall close to the door feeling the effects of his blood loss at last. He then reached into his pocket with his right hand and took out the glass ball containing the rainbow colored flame. He gazed longingly at the aurora flickering in the sphere and shed a single tear before whispering to it, "I'm sorry old friend" before stabbing his thumb into it releasing the flame from the sphere. He then gathered the flame into his free hand and slowly brought it to his wound. The flame felt both burning hot and burning cold all at once and then a soothing felling washed over his old bones as his wound healed and his face began to mold and sharpen to a younger age. Strength and youth began returning to him as his body stopped aching and his aged skin smoothed out returning him back to his younger years. Merlin breather in though his now thirty year old face as he stepped into a patch of evening sun feeling the crisp and cool air as it surrounded him. He then hung his head in respect while whispering, "I will always remember you, Senia" as one tear from each eye rolled down his cheeks. He then opened his eyes to focus on his brother. "Whisperings in your mind, eh? Then let's see if I can literally knock them out of you."

Grimnak was busy knocking Beetlejuice around like a gang of middle school bullies, shoving him into another doppelganger and that one shoving him in the direction of another. Apparently too busy to realize what had just happened and only was able to glimpse at Merlin after he had placed his hood back on. About three doppelgangers broke away from the childish shoving of poor Beetlejuice to confront the newcomer approaching them. "Look at the old geezer trying to take us all on. You could barely take on one of us before. Looks like you can't teach an **old dog** new tricks." The Grimnak in the middle taunted. Merlin simply smiled under his hood, knowing full well that his face was still unseen. "You had to jump me last time. And I find that I learned more..." He flipped his hood off before aiming the palms of both hands at the outer doppelgangers, "in my youth." Before they could blink, the two doppelgangers he was aiming at received one lightning bolt each and were immediately turned into dust. The third watched in shock as his two duplicates vanished too quickly to think. The crack of the thunder caught the attention of the other doppelgangers. "I think the humans now-a-days call that 'owned'." Merlin stated in a cocky manner. His voice was no longer tired and worn but now held a melodic sway to its even tone. It was also higher in pitch than it used to be, making him sound slightly manly and sensitive all at once.

In her room, while studying her math homework, Lydia felt as if she was being bombarded by a swarm of flies ramming against her back and chest in pairs. Annoyed with the constant tiny thumping feelings around her body, Lydia immediately stood up from her chair and mumbled to herself, "Just what the heck is he doing, using himself as a punching bag? One day, all I ask for is one day of peace and quiet." She quickly thought of an excuse to leave the house and began rubbing her right temple as she descended the stairs toward the front door. She passed by the living room as she continued on her journey. "Lydia." She heard Delia call to her. "Where are you going?" "Headache, mam. I'm going to ride my bike for a while to try and clear it." Lydia lied without so much as turning to her. She continued to rub her temple to attempt to make the story believable. Delia hesitated for a while before answering, "Ok dear, but don't be out too long. It's almost sundown." Lydia then turned to Delia slightly to give a thoughtful smile before nodding her head in acknowledgement. She then exited through the door just as the small thumping feelings halted. 'Strange' she thought to herself, 'I'd probably go and check on him anyway.'

By the time she had gotten to the forest, the battle was over, Merlin making use of the element of surprise and his manipulation of nature to fight off the doppelgangers. However, he had failed to actually slay all of them in time and the thirty minutes had at last run out, forcing Grimnak to end his projection gate and cut off all contact with his copies. Lydia skid her back tire across the dirt as she sharply turned into her momentum after applying her rear brakes. "Beetlejuice?" She called into the forest in an even mid-shout, trying not to let her voice echo across the hills but still be loud enough to be heard through the forest. "Ben?" She worriedly called to avoid saying his name too many times in a row and suddenly find herself in the Neitherworld. Ben finally emerged through the trees, leaning against them for support as he staggered by. The boy smiled at his friend and said in his Australian accent, "Hope I didn't scare ya too much there." Lydia dropped her bike on its right side as she dashed in to help the boy stay on his feet. He placed his right arm around her shoulder as she propped him up. He regained his strength and smiled as he showed her that he was alright.

A short moment, after Ben was looked over for injuries, Lydia finally noticed a semi-familiar shadow among the trees. She readied herself to fight if necessary until he spoke, introducing himself. "Do not be alarmed child. It is just me, Merlin." He stepped into a patch of light with his face unveiled. He was so different and yet, she knew who he was. "What?" Lydia began questioning everything she thought she knew so far about the Neitherworld. Merlin smiled at the young girl gently realizing that she must have a thousand or more questions by now. For now he was simply amused at how she squeaked out, "Huh? What? When? How?"

End of Season 2 Episode 10


	11. Episode 31: Uncle Merlin

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 31: Uncle Merlin**

The next day, Lydia scheduled a study session with Ben at his cottage. Prudence, Bertha, and Claire now seeing the young Merlin for the first time pretty much answered the same way Lydia did when he revealed himself to her in the forest. They all were flabbergasted to see him now in his early thirties rather than looking his ancient age. His skin was no longer pale and worn but vibrant and tanned. The wrinkles had vanished and his body now evenly toned to show his broad chest and strong arms. Claire had to constantly remind herself that he is the better part of a couple thousand years old while Prudence wracked her brain to crunch the numbers together to figure out how to replicate it for future use. Bertha was in doubt until she asked him an entire SAT's worth of questions before she was convinced.

"Seriously," Merlin began, "Countless feats of magic witnessed and an age reduction spell gets you all confused." Remembering all of the magic that Naria threw at them, Lydia and Beetlejuice couldn't argue. Lydia then shook her head to try and remove her confusion when they heard a loud knock at the cabin door and then Delia's voice screeching out, "Oh Lydia, I just came to see how your homework is coming." Lydia nearly panicked when Merlin waved his hand quickly and used controlled wind to place out their homework and books out along the table as well as quickly set chairs for them. He then cleared his throat and mumbled to himself in an Australian accent before ushering the five of them to the table and allowed Laurence to get the door. "Ah, Mrs. Deetz. Come on in. I'm surprised ta see ya out here in the woods." "Good to see you too Laurence. I'm just checking up on my daughter and bringing her snacks incase she was hungry." Delia said in her cheerful demeanor. "Awe, how sweet of ya, but I just grilled up some grub for them already." Delia peaked around Laurence's shoulder as he spoke to her, finally noticing the young Merlin trying to sneak into the kitchen. "Laurence, who is in your kitchen?" she asked immediately. 'Oh crap!' Lydia thought to herself as she overheard Delia. 'New strength in magic and you couldn't think to turn yourself invisible or something?'

Merlin thought fast, the quickly grabbed a skewer from the silver wear drawer and conjured up an illusion of a shrimp and pineapple kabob and then casually poked his head out of the kitchen while waving his fingers and tricking Delia's nose into smelling the kabob's scent. In his Australian accent he announced himself. "Oi, Pops! Who's this Sheila?" His new accent was so thick, you could have sworn he was born and raised in Australia's outback regions. Laurence turned naturally and scolded him, "Oi, drongo! You're being galah. Now be polite before I rap ya upside the head!" Merlin honestly did not expect the aged golem clone to react like that, but now he was put on the spot and had to think really fast.

Merlin walked up to Delia and politely bowed while shaking her hand, "Pardon me Miss. My name is Merlin. I'm Ben's..." "Uncle." Laurence filled in for him, surprisingly good at keeping up the lies. "Twins him and Alex was." Laurence gruffly placed his right hand on Merlin's right shoulder with a proud smile on his face. Delia looked Merlin up and down thinking to herself, 'I wonder if Ben's father looked this young.' She forced herself to snap out of her daydream and asked, "When did you get in?" Merlin answered, "Just now Miss. I just popped in a few minutes ago and saw the tykes just reading away. I didn't mean ta bother anyone. I just wanted ta surprise li'l Ben here. I didn't think he'd have friends over."

Delia couldn't help herself, she suddenly imagined what it would be like to be married to an Aussie like Merlin. She snapped herself out of it when she realized that there'd be no way of understanding what he says. She cleared her throat and swiftly answered, "Well, I... we would like to invite you and Ben to a dinner at our house to..." she cleared her throat once again, "get to know our neighbors better. Laurence is that alright? After all, I had Ben invite us to dinner." A sheepish grin formed on her face as she said that last line. Realizing what was going through her mind, Merlin flatly retorted, "It's the accent idn't it?" Without even thinking, Delia blurted out, "And the muscles..." Realizing that she just made a fool of herself in front of Lydia, Delia turned her gaze sheepishly to the ground and quietly said, "Sorry. I'm married. I should know better."

Hearing the complete awkwardness of the entire situation, Lydia buried her face in her hands and proceeded to try and rub away the stress all the while mumbling to herself, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy." She then caught herself thinking that her late mother wouldn't be this weak minded, then remembered that she would be nice to him anyway. "How 'bout another dinner at the cabin? Merlin'll cook barbecue. I guarantee you and Charles will like it. Besides, them tykes still need ta study." Laurence answered. "In an hour then?" Delia asked. Both Ben and Lydia now felt the doom of embarrassment looming over them and simply allowed their foreheads to fall to the table with a synchronized 'thud'. After Delia left, Laurence brought Merlin up to speed on the background of Ben's life that he made up.

An hour later, a barbecue rib and chicken dinner was prepared by Merlin perfectly. A homemade barbecue sauce with gigantic sets of spareribs and whole pieces of chicken perfectly grilled on the barbecue along with barbecued corn on the cob and a leaf salad adorned with corn chips, sliced almonds and an oriental salad dressing. To make things less awkward, Laurence decided to make the event an all out backyard barbecue and invite Claire's, Bertha's and Prudence's Parents as well. The whole thing turned out to be a good impromptu idea as it took the stress off of Lydia, Ben and Delia and allowed them to have some fun mingling with others rather than give in to a dead awkward silence. Merlin proved to be a master cook behind the grill and when Delia asked how he had gotten so good, his answer was, "Ya learn a few things as ya travel." However when Lydia asked, it was, "A couple thousand plus years and you think I never learned to cook?"

As the parents began to mingle with each other embarrassing stories about their children began to come to the surface and laughter began to echo through the forest trees. While Bertha's parents refused to partake of the actual meet, they did however sample and compliment Merlin on his barbecue sauce and all of them ate till they were full and mingled long into the afternoon.

Later that night, after all of the families had left and thanked Laurence and Merlin for the barbecue, Lydia found herself still angry at Delia for her flirting with Merlin and wanted to scold her stepmother for her behavior, however decided to try and sleep it off for the night and try and talk to her about it tomorrow when she had the chance. Merlin, however was exhausted and flopped down in the guest bedroom and fell asleep the moment his face hit the pillow. The dreams that came to him were more like memories of his childhood. His father was a mighty warrior that was humanoid in shape but had fine golden scales adorning his skin. His flaming red hair flowed just so perfectly in the wind so that even while he was standing still and smiling warmly, he looked like an epic samurai warrior from Japan. Upon his head were sandy brown horns that curved away and back from his head. The irises of his eyes were as golden as his scales. Merlin looked fondly at his father's physique, his large hulking shoulders and massive muscular arms and chest. His father was a dragon warrior, a dragon that took on the shape of a human being for whatever reason, and that reason was his mother, a human female about as tall as he was. Her long silver hair swayed beautifully in the wind and looked like it was encrusted with diamond dust as it shone in the light of the sun. Her skin was bright like the moonlight and her smile was as gentle as a cloud on a calm day. Her sapphire blue eyes glinted in the faintest light. She was gorgeous in every sense of the word and he, a young pup about seven years of age, was proud to have such a family of strength and grace.

Merlin's father spoke with authority and power in every word that escaped his lips while his mother spoke gracefully and kind, uplifting even a dying man's moral. The era was a time of many battles, dragon fought against human for supremacy of the planet, dragons out of pride and anger, humans out of fear of destruction. Spears, swords, axes, bows and arrows, weapons of all kinds were used by the humans in combat while the beasts known as dragons used their mystical arts over the elements of nature. Aromant, Merlin's father, refused to allow his family to be torn apart by some silly war over superstition and pride, so he hid his family away in a mountain dwelling until one day, when the war came to them.

A single ruby red dragon in beast form came crawling up the mountain side, bleeding profusely from a wound in its leg. It spotted an ornate building built into the side of the mountain and hidden by the trees from the eyes of all who would intrude. The dragon limped on to the house and called out in a tongue only dragons could hear. To a human it merely sounded like a series of growls and roars, but to Aromant, it was clearly the language of his kin. Aromant met the dragon outside of his house and conversed with him in the tongue of the dragons until Luna, Merlin's mother came to join them and see if she could help the injured beast. Seeing a human, the red dragon reared and tried to roar out a signal until Aromant snagged one of the creature's fangs and yanked his head to the ground and forcibly gazed him in the eye. Aromant's simple glare made the mighty creature cower with fright and it simply whimpered as the mighty hand of the golden dragon warrior released the fang with not a threat, but a warning. "Endanger my family, and you will know my wrath worse than any punishment or war."

The image soon shifted from his father glaring at the ruby creature, to crimson flames on a battlefield with Aromant engaged in a heated and epic struggle against a black dragon with three heads. Shadows enveloped the dragon as they fought, frightening young Merlin and his brothers. The battle began to intensify as the scene shifted back to the mountain home scorched and burned down to the ground by black flames. Aromant was now desperately clinging to Luna's lifeless body and wallowing in self pity over his loss. A silhouette of a man wearing armor with dragon's heads for the shoulder guards could be seen watching from the shade of the trees in the distance, his eyes burning with hatred. Aromant turned in absolute rage and charged at the silhouette, sword drawn and rearing to spill the assailant's blood.

Merlin shot awake from his dream as the sun broke the horizon, hearing just the end of the dawn chorus sung by the local birds. He sat up in his bed, head throbbing slightly and perspiration saturating his body from his nightmare. Merlin placed his right hand against his forehead to hold back his anxiety, he then mumbled to himself, "Again?" He then recalled the events of the last time his brother attacked and how he was still surprised at how his face looked as Grimank was talking about the voices in his head. Fear, anguish, regret, sorrow, and lunacy all rolled into one body, creating who Merlin thought was his brother. 'How did such a curious boy turn into such a maniac?' Merlin thought to himself.

Grimnak awoke from his own slumber that same morning. He stretched out the kinks in his muscles and sat silently listening to something not there. Not present, but always lurking. Hearing nothing for the first time in a great while, he decided to get himself ready for the day, except the moment he stood up, a thousand whispering voices rang in the bowels of his mind, bringing back the torment with it. "You must destroy them." The voices repeated over and over. "Stop!" Grimnak tried to command them, "Stop, I say! Stop talking to me!" Never listening, only whispering, the voices continued on, "You must destroy them!" "But why?" He pleaded in agony to the disembodied voices, "Why me?" "If you don't kill, you will be killed." The voices answered, still whispering to his mind. Fear then took hold and the tears began to flow from his eyes at the mere thought of facing his brother again. After some time went by the voices again spoke to him, echoing a thousand times in his head, "If it is too hard, let us have a try." "NO, not yet. I'm not so weak to let you take my body and spill innocent blood." Grimnak growled while clenching both his teeth and his fists. "For that, you will have to wait till I am dead."

Lydia, unable to sleep as well, lie awake in her bed. Awoken by the same dream about her mother that haunts her every other night, she was saturated in perspiration and once again found herself crying silently, the memory still vivid in her mind. The crumpled up green Acura, her mother soaking in her own blood, the lights from the ambulances all haunting her, unable to give her a moment's peace. "I'm sorry", she muttered through her sobs as if trying to speak to the memory. She repeated her apology through her tears over and over, her pillow now drenched from her flood of tears.

Then, slowly, a gentle and familiar warmth began to embrace her, calming her and washing away her sorrows. Lydia slowly opened her eyes as the warmth enveloped her entire body, seeing a pair of faintly glowing, supple arms wrapped in a parental embrace, the way Elizabeth used to comfort her when she was young. "Mom?" she squeaked as yet another tear of longing fell down her cheek. "Hush now, my little sparrow." a soft sweet voice whispered to her. "No one's called me that in ages." Lydia whispered back, letting some more tears fall. "They let you out on good behavior?" Lydia joked after a while and before the angel behind her could respond, turned around and tightly embraced her mother, sobbing some more. "I miss you so much." Lydia choked out in between sobs. Elizabeth gently stroked her daughter's head to comfort her as they both cried tears of longing and joy meshed into one. After a few minutes of mother, daughter embrace, Elizabeth whispered to Lydia, "I came here to warn you that a great enemy hunts for you, watching your every move." Confused, Lydia asked, "What enemy?" "He is an enemy to all, but we angels are forbidden to speak his name." was Elizabeth's answer. "Seek out the remaining angelic journals, they will guide you to the nephilim." "What does that mean?" Lydia asked. Elizabeth simply shrugged her shoulders and responded, "No idea. I was just supposed to deliver the message, I was never told what it means." Elizabeth then embraced her confused daughter and surrounded her once again in a soothing light. Lydia awoke the next morning feeling strangely refreshed and warm, the memory of her meeting with her mother's angelic spirit fleeting as if a dream.

End Season 2 Episode 11


	12. Episode 32: Dark Sides

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 32: Dark Sides**

The evening sun was just beginning to set in the sky, when just outside of town flashes of light and silent explosions signaling an intense battle beyond the forest. Beetlejuice had already met Merlin on the battlefield against multiple Grimnak clones. After using the same duplication spell for the third time after his forces dwindled, Grimnak began to believe victory was in sight until Beetlejuice was knocked down by three of them. In a desperate attempt to stay alive, Beetlejuice's fear overtook him and he lost consciousness. His skin began to darken, and his hair shifted and grew. His crimson fingernails sharpened and elongated into claws as well as his already sharp canines became even more lethal. The whites of his eyes darkened to blood red as his iris changed color to look menacing. His voice deepens and cracked into a growl as his muscles tensed up as he lost his grip on reality and felt nothing but unbridled rage.

As swift as lightning, he thrust his claws through the clones holding him down and set his sights on the one in front of him.

Across town, Lydia was attempting to go on a shopping trip with Claire until a disturbing feeling overcame her. She felt light headed and inexplicably angry, a sensation she recognized and had yet to control. She held tight to her consciousness a much as she could as she stumbled around the shopping center disoriented and apparently suffering from a migraine. Looking at her hand, Lydia noticed her fingernails sharpening by themselves into deadly claws as something in her mouth began to make her feel uncomfortable. Using her tongue she discovered that her top two canine teeth sharpened and lengthened to that of what could be believed as vampire fangs. Her strength dwindled as she struggled to maintain consciousness and control. She quickly staggered her way to the front door until her strength finally gave out completely and she blacked out. In place of the kind gothic girl stood a creature of raw, unbridled fury with no control.

Watching her best friend transform in front of her eyes, Claire quickly thought of what to do and used an arrow from the dragon's ring and fired it into the air above the heads of all of the other shoppers and employees. The arrow burst into silver dust that speedily rained to the ground and those who were enveloped by it froze and faded as if they were partially in this existence and partially in another. She then quickly aimed her next arrow at Lydia and fired it. Once again, the silver light wrapped around and ensnared her. Lydia fell to the ground thrashing and kicking violently to attempt to break free while Claire silently apologized to her friend and called Prudence on her cell phone.

As Claire dialed and waited for the tiny braniac to answer, she watched as Lydia rose to her feet, screamed loudly and forced the silver rope to expand simply by forcing her arms apart. Inevitably, to Claire's surprise, she destroyed her bindings and turned her attention to her captor. Claire dropped the phone just as Prudence picked up and rushed to fire an arrow into the ground in front of her feet. The beams of light expanded along the ground and rose to form a hardened wall of light that was supposed to protect Claire from harm, however the more Lydia pushed with her claws, the farther in they dug through the barrier of silver light. Quickly, Claire fired yet another arrow at Lydia striking her and making her vanish altogether. Claire sighed at her relief and mumbled, "Perhapse she'll do less damage in the Neitherworld." Then, remembering the other lost souls that reside there, Claire began to mentally slap herself, before remembering that if Lydia was transformed like that, Beetlejuice had to be as well.

"Hello? Claire, are you there?" Prudence's voice echoed from the phone. Startled slightly, Claire snatched her cell phone and answered, "Prudence, Lydia transformed and went 'wild' on me again." "Where are you?" Prudence asked worried. "I'm at the shopping center in the middle of town. My dad dropped us off." Claire said now in a full panic, with tears beginning to stream down her face with worry. "Where is Lydia now? And what about the other people there?" Prudence asked trying to remain clam, herself. "I used the dragon's ring to banish her to the Neitherworld and to freeze the shoppers in a suspended animation and keep them from harm." Claire was just about to break down as more and more words escaped her mouth. "We have to find her, Prude! We have to find Lydia." Okay, okay." Prudence tried to calm her down and think. "We need to get ahold of Merlin and make sure Beetlejuice calms down and doesn't hurt anyone either. If she transformed, then so has he.

"Beetlejuice roared in wild rage as he felt something apart of him slip away from his presence. He was still being attacked by the Grimnak clones one after another while others were still attacking Merlin to keep him busy. Slashing and clawing at each clone that approached him, Beetlejuice looked around to find what he felt he had lost. An empty feeling in his gut he didn't know before.

In a flash of silver light, Clare and Prudence reappeared at Ben's cabin. More precisely, Ben's bedroom. "That's cool, but why did we need to appear in his bedroom?" Prudence asked out of curiosity. "Because I hoping he was here, or if Laurence could tell us. Besides, would you rather me make us appear in the middle of the battlefield?" Claire sharply responded. "Good point." Prudence answered under her breath. It was then Claire could hear a tree trunk being ripped apart and begin it's abrupt collapse to the earth. The sound could not have been more than two hundred yards away which had her concerned. She needed to subdue Beetlejuice and with her recent encounter with Lydia breaking her silver bonds on where strength alone, Claire was questioning herself whether or not she knew what she was doing and if she had the strength to handle her friends in this state.

Claire once again picked up her cell phone and this time dialed Bertha's number. As the ringing sound repeated itself, Claire thought and pleaded aloud, "Please pick up. Oh, please pick up." Suddenly there was a clicking sound and Bertha's mother spoke. "Hennings residence, Carlie speaking." Quickly, Claire answered, "Is Bertha home?" "Yes, she's in her room." Ms. Jennings responded with clear worry in her voice. "Is there something wrong?" "I need to speak to her now. It's about our friend, Ben.". Moments later Bertha picked up the phone with equal amount of worry in her voice. Their conversation lasted only a few short minutes, however felt like an eternity. They had agreed to meet back at Ben's house after an hour of searching with Claire and Prudence splitting up in opposite directions of the forest, Bertha and her mother on their way to join. Prudence constantly keeping her bearings and Claire quickly downloading an app to keep from getting lost.

Relieved that Beetlejuice was no longer paying any attention to him but now worried that he may wander into a neighboring town, Merlin stayed close enough to keep an eye on him but kept enough distance to not draw his attention.

After an hour of following him, Merlin noticed his behavior and saw that it looked as if he was a dog following a scent. "Interesting", he thought to himself, "I wonder what he's doing.". Beetlejuice continued sniffing around, wandering until he caught the scent of something and began angrily growling at it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a creature that resembled a dragon from Bertha's favorite game tackled him from behind and roared in Beetlejuice's face. Merlin looked around to eventually locate Bertha herself, controlling the imaginary creature come to life. "Ironic that she uses 'dragons' in that game." Merlin muttered to himself as he watched the large hulking beast square off with an enraged Beetlejuice.

The two circled each other similar to how he and Lydia circled each other over possession of Claire as their prey. The dragon's roar, however majestic in sound, quaked at the roar given off by Beetlejuice. Pure rage etched in every breath, Beetlejuice lunged first at the creature and sunk his claws into the left leg. Oddly enough, as the wound opened up on the dragon, a similar wound spurt open in the exact same place on Bertha's arm. The wound on Bertha was but mere cuts however it finally put to light the consequences of the mirror stone. If the apparition summoned is fatally wounded, what kind of injuries would the wielder of the stone inherit? Bertha herself, however, barely paid attention to the five rose thorn stabs bleeding on her forearm. And certainly paid no attention to her mother watching nearby. Merlin began to worry as the dragon and the demon fought ferociously with Beetlejuice opening wounds in Bertha's flesh every time he struck the dragon.

With cuts all over her sides, face, and arms, Bertha pressed on, and mentally commanded her dragon to fight. 'I gotta drag this on until Claire or Merlin get here.' She thought to herself, blood dripping onto the soil below. Her breath was becoming ragged from stress quickly as Merlin finally realized what she was doing catching a hint that it's time to make himself known. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, an arrow of silver light shot through the forest and bound Beetlejuice's arms to his sides. Just as quickly, Claire emerged from the trees and took aim at her friend and reluctantly fired yet another arrow, but instead of being banished, he froze like a stone statue, unable to move. She silently apologized just as Merlin descended the hill to catch up with them. "Claire, Bertha!" He called to them. Claire turned to him with a start but quickly let it turn a scowl just before she slapped him across the left cheek. "And when were you planning on helping us? I saw you just standing there watching while, Bertha was fighting Beetlejuce. Why didn't you use your stupid magic to stop him?" She shot at him. He began stuttering for a minute as Bertha's mother went to the aid of her child. "I thought you said it wasn't that dangerous." Merlin heard her scold Bertha.

Merlin tried to step around Claire to tend to Bertha's wounds however, she apparently still in anted an answer. "Look if I used magic and accidentally hit Bertha, she'd be in alot worse shape than this right now." He explained as he gently pushed her aside. He then knelt down next to the tired and injured Bertha and examined her injuries. "So the wounds inflicted on her are magic..." He mumbled to himself so that Carlie could hear. She turned to him and asked with worry on her face, "so what does that mean?" she asked. Merlin snickered a bit and answered, "It means I know how it works." Seeing once again the worry in Carlie's face Merlin gingerly placed a hand on her shoulder. "She'll be fine in a minute or so. As the magic wears off her wounds will just vanish. She just needs to rest is all."

In the Neitherworld, Lydia wandered, lost and confused. A wild beast taken from her home territory and thrust into a land she was still not too familiar with. Leery and paranoid about anything that crossed her path she wandered around until her hand bumped into a rectangular object that startled her at first until she looked and found a small book with a reddish-brown leather cover that had the image of am angel embroidered on it. Recognizing the book, Lydia cautiously and gently picked up the strange object. As she held onto it, she felt herself begin to shift back into her original form with Lydia's consciousness returning to her, and the spider silk shining as if it beheld a crimson light sewn into every strand, she opened the angelic journal and began to read. "Outerworld date: October second, twelve seventy three. I went to talk to an old friend today, and he had a message from the future for me. So I write this to the one who wears the spider silk. Peace comes at a price, the battles we fight are necessary to create the future we seek, or is to come regardless. By the time you read this, you must be weary of those who seek to do you harm and take what sits on your shoulders, but fret not, you are never alone in this ordeal. I do not comprehend everything The Seer has said to me but, I suppose that I serve a role in this journey, so from here on I shall dedicate my life to collecting as much information on the mysterious spellwoven objects left behind by Arachnis Widow into these journals, perhapse they shall help you somehow. I only wish to be able to meet you someday. But, who knows what our future's hold for us?". Regaining her full consciousness, Lydia blinked her eyes twice before re-reading the entry. "Is this written... for me?" She asked aloud before turning the page. The entry read, "Outerworld date: October thirteenth, twelve seventy three. Nothing much on the spider silk but I have discovered that the famed Arachnis Widow created countless artifacts that she eventually seized and destroyed due to an incident that ended up destroying a lost soul's essence, a crime unforgivable in any world. The incident in question involved actually two of her artifacts as their wielders and owners fought over power, one protecting the relics from falling into the hands of the other and the other seeking to gather all of the artifacts and rule all of the worlds unopposed and unrivaled. Needless to say, the hero fell to the villain, however, all of his collected artifacts vanished in one night while the villain slept, with only sider threads remaining where they once stood."

"Let me get this straight," Merlin sighed in annoyance, "You showed your parents the stone and what you can do with it the moment you got home after using it against my brother?" "What?" Bertha answered bashfully, "I needed the practice and I was excited about it." Merlin glared at the tall girl with annoyed, half laden eyes, "While we're divulging our secrets, Perhapse you should also tell her about Grimnak and Naria." "I already know." Carlie explained, "I've lived in a haunted house when I was young. One you got to know the Maitlands, they were very nice and helpful." "And they've explained the Neitherworld to you." Merlin asked flabbergasted. "Apparently some lost souls were caught on Earth when the Spirit Gates were sealed. Over time, they took on a transparent form and became invulnerable to physical harm." "Phasing." Merlin answered with an expression of discovery on his face. "In any case, I hope you don't mind if she puts herself in danger like that again." Merlin said bluntly. "Thanks for trying to give me a heart attack." The sarcasm that flew out of her mouth was so thick, it possibly could have punched Merlin in the face. "Guys," Claire interrupted, I think Beetlejuce is changing back."

Indeed, Claire's assumption was correct. Even though he was frozen in place, Beetlejuice began shifting back as if his demon form simply timed out like in a video game. Claire aimed her arrow once again and this time brought back her friend from imprisonment. Beetlejuice collapsed to his knees breathing hard but this time retaining consciousness, just not memory. "What happened?" he asked confused, he then looked around frantically. "Where is Grimnak?" Merlin patted him on the right shoulder blade and answered him, "It's alright, he's gone for now." Beetlejuice released his breath and began to calm down. As he gazed back at the group, he finally noticed one extra member in the group as well as one missing. "Uh, hello, Ms. Hennings." Beetlejuice said bashfully. "What is she doing here?" He tried to address Bertha through his teeth. "I already know who you are, 'Ben'. Bertha is both a horrible liar and poor at keeping secrets, especially if she gets excited." Carlie explained. As Merlin, Beetlejuice, and Claire threw Bertha all angry glares, Prudence used her right hand to face palm herself. Quickly, Bertha blurted out, "What did you expect, my favorite monster came to life right in front of my eyes and kicked butt. Who wouldn't I brag to?" With her hand still covering her face, Prudence snidely commented, "I'm surprised you weren't dragged off to an asylum." Defeated, Bertha sighed and responded, "Alright, I'm sorry. I can have a big mouth sometimes."

Intrigued by the message to her from in a book written thousands of years ago, Lydia flipped through the pages, glancing and skimming through quickly, hoping to find another one or at least a clue as to what the spider silk was and or how it worked. She eventually found some blank pages, 'Looks like I'll be loaning this to Prudence', Lydia thought to herself before looking around at her environment. "How did I get to the Neitherworld?" She asked herself aloud and was about to prepare herself to use the chant when a set of arms wrapped themselves around her mouth, muffling her words. Grimnak then leaned in and whispered, "It would be just so easy to snap your neck and end both you and your guardian ghost in one blow." Suddenly as if arriving as a hero, the barrier of the spider silk thrust his hands off of her mouth and then tossed Grimnak backward around twenty feet. "Blast that silk." he cursed for forgetting. He raised his left hand and thrust lightning from his fingertips, striking once again, the barrier and pushing Lydia back with the force of the impact. Lydia struggled to maintain her footing and eventually toppled onto her back. Gripping the book tightly she felt her body being dragged by the force of his spell and only began to worry when she once again heard the noise of cracking glass. 'In a few seconds, the lightning would shatter the barrier and punch a hole through my body.'. Lydia thought to herself. Just then flowing water wrapped around the barrier, redirecting the lightning around it as an arrow zinged by and struck Grimnak in the left shoulder. The lightning stopped and the electrified water began funneling into a horizontal spout that shot right at Grimnak's feet. As the water rushed over his lower legs, the electricity began coursing through his body. Grimnak let out a shriek as he was being electrocuted for a brief second and dropped to his knees before exploding into black dust. Breathing hard from her narrow brush with oblivion, Lydia looked around to find her rescuers. Eventually a familiar voice and southern accent caught her attention. "Hey, Lydia!" Sierra called. Standing next to her was Sophie, another Atlantian girl that had fought with Lydia and Beetlejuice against Naria.

End of Season 2 Episode 12


	13. Episode 33: The Sleeping Dragon - Part 1

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 33: The Sleeping Dragon - part 1**

Sierra and Sophie both greeted their friend as Lydia desperately tried to collect her thoughts. She was still shaken up about being attacked by Grimnak out of the blue. Sierra noticed that Lydia was acting slightly out of it and gingerly helped her to her feet. They began leading her toward the Road House to hide when Lydia snapped out of her stupor and realized that the Grimnak that attacked her was but another doppelganger. 'Wait,' she thought to herself, 'If Grimnak wasn't here himself? Then where is he for real?' "Gosh darn, girl. That was a close-un." Sierra exclaimed bringing Lydia's mind back to her present scenario. "Hey, are you ok?" Sophie asked, slightly worried for Lydia. Lydia looked to the Atlantian girl. They were approximately the same age and height. Sophie adorned herself with an ornate blue dress with what looked to be coral designs near the bottom. The dress was held to her shoulders by thin quarter inch wide straps of the same light shade of sea-blue. Her face was made up with lavender colored eyeliner and deep blue lipstick with a hint of blush on her cheeks. "Why are you dressed up?" Lydia asked in a mild confusion. Sophie grabbed Lydia by the hand and, without a word, led Lydia just slightly to the right of the Road House and into an established part of a town built specifically close to it. The city dump had been cleared out and in the center of town a bronze statue of Aldar erected in honor of his heroic sacrifice. "Welcome to 'Demon's Tear." Sophie announced. The town was small and quaint with only a few houses and businesses set up however, it was still large enough of a town to be impressive. "I volunteered this year to dance at a ceremony in honor of our saviors." Sophie explained. "Oh, what do you do?" Lydia instinctively asked. "I entertain folks with my water dancing routine." was Sophie's response.

A gentle breeze blew through the air and Lydia picked up the subtle scent of waterfall mist. She looked down at her feet and at last noticed the short blades of bluish-green grass, the scent emanating from them. The grass surrounded both the town and the Road House with paved walkways and roads cutting through. No longer was the land barren and dead but ironically full of life and wonder. White, red and blue wildflowers of various shades dotted the landscape as far as Lydia could see. From inside the town, Lydia could hear people talking and laughing while some worked their shops like bakeries and restaurants, all preparing for the festival. "When did you all do this?" Lydia asked in awe. "Awe, the grass and flowers grew back all on their own." Sierra responded, "But the town... Y'all'd be surprised what a community banded together can do."

They led Lydia past the town gate and further into town. As they passed all manner of lost souls, mythical and modern, gawked and politely waved as Lydia walked with Sierra and Sophie. They neared the bronze statue when the other three of Sophie's friends ran up to greet her. "Sophie, where'd you go?" Natalie asked and then immediately turned to Lydia and addressed her nonchalantly, "Hey there famous celebrity of the war"' and turned back to Sophie. Feeling slightly insulted and ignored, Lydia folded her arms and grunted, "I have a name you know." "Natalie, don't be rude, you were in that war too. You should remember Lydia." Sierra scolded as Lydia heard mumblings and whisperings from behind her. She turned around only to notice a crowd of people gathering together and chatting amongst themselves about Lydia and her role as the person who led the attack against Naria and destroyed the cauldron. In the distance, Lydia picked out the remains of the castle. The smoke had ceased and from what she could tell, it had been converted into some kind of historical land mark.

"We need to find, Lydia and fast. With my brother roaming in the Neitherworld, she could be in alot of trouble." Merlin explained once again to try and drive the point home. "But how do we even know where she ended up?" Claire asked. "I don't know the layout of the Neitherworld that well and I blindly teleported her there without even thinking." They all thought about their predicament until Beetlejuice suggested, "We should try the Road House. Familiar territory first." Merlin nodded and extended his right hand out in front of him so that his index and middle finger were extended and pressed against each other while the other three fingers were curled in as if he was pointing at something with those two fingers. Suddenly the tips of his two fingers began to glow bluish-white just before he began separating his fingers like a pair of scissors. As he did this, a line of light in the same color began to form, stretching both upward and downward from his fingers as they slowly opened. The line of light extended until it was four inches taller than Merlin himself and he then slowly spun his hand to point the middle finger upright as he opened his remaining fingers. As this happened, the line of light opened up in an oval shape the light ringing the edge of the opening like fire. Inside the ring of fire, a part of the Neitherworld they knew so well could be seen. "The Road House lies on the other side." Merlin informed them. "For all you first timers," He then added, "It can be frightening at first, just remember that you actually aren't going to burn." "What does **that** mean?" Carlie blurted out before Merlin shoved her through the portal. She went sprawling through and landed on her hands and knees in the bluish-green grass, catching the scent of their calming aroma. A chill danced across her spine as a gentle wind blew from the south. She slowly stood to her feet as the others stepped through the dragon's gate. As Claire came through last, the portal narrowed back into the silver line of energy and shrank back into nothing.

Remembering that she was shoved through a magic portal, Carlie turned back to Merlin and began scolding him, "Just what was that about? I could have been hurt!" He calmly and flatly answered her stern tone of voice, "Magic is far more abundant in the Neitherworld so even if you were mortally wounded I could simply heal you." "Liar." She retorted and he looked to her as if he was insulted by the very notion. However, he gave in easily and revealed his secret, "Yah you're right, if that was the case, I would have been there for all of those who were taken in the war last year." All of them except for Carlie and Merlin let their gaze meet the ground at their feet as the sad memories came back to the forefront. There was a small moment of silence from each to pay respect to each of the souls fallen in battle that day. During that time Carlie could hear bustling noises coming from the other side of the building they called "The Road House". She listen carefully as the others gave their moment of silence until Merlin noticed her strange behavior. Instinctively, he tuned out the distractions around him and focused on his sense of hearing. He could hear faint sounds of people from behind the Road House. People that seemed to be busy with their daily lives, a community, perhaps. 'I really should have gotten out of my house more often.' He thought to himself. His memory of the new communities and towns of the Neitherworld failed him as he tried to recall what town was near the Road House. "What do you hear mom?" He heard Bertha ask Carlie. Hesitantly, she answered, "I think I hear people, but… Isn't this the land of the **dead**?" "The only difference between the living and the dead is the heartbeat… and possibly looks." Merlin answered before motioning for them to follow him.

They followed the sounds until they traveled close to forty yards and entered into what looked like a town. Candle lamps decorated walkways making the scenery resemble something out of a British move based in the eighteenth century. Creatures of all types and shapes walked the streets. Carlie could count vampires, humanoid zombies, minotaurs, and creatures she had never even seen or heard of before. "I think a lot of these lost souls were involved in the war." Bertha blurted out. Carlie's jaw simply hung open as she stood there dumbfounded and awestruck. "These are lost souls?" She finally blurted out still in shock. "Yah, mom. Lost souls are just what you become when you die. You still maintain the shape you had when you died." Suddenly they heard Lydia's voice pipe in, "I need to explain it better to you some time." They turned their gaze over to where they hear her voice coming from and found her sitting on the edge of a fountain with a stone statue of Beetlejuice in the center of it. Upon seeing their friend, they instantly felt both relief and happiness all at once. Instinctively, they ran up and threw their arms around her in a group hug each telling her how worried they were about her all at the same time. Lydia though she heard Bertha say something about fighting Beetlejuice and Claire giving Merlin a piece of her mind for standing there and just watching but what surprised her was when she heard Bertha's mother's voice from outside the group's boundaries. "Are you alright, Lydia?" She heard Carlie say. At first Lydia was stunned to see Bertha's mother here in the Neitherworld, she quickly shook off her confusion with but a single question, "Bertha… What is your mom doing here?" "She told me almost everything that happened to her since she met you in school." Carlie answered and then turned back to look at all of the residents of the town. "So **these** are 'lost souls'?" She then asked, simply verbally confirming it to herself with both wonder and worry etched in her voice.

After a quick explanation of the four worlds, Lydia began to take the group around town, noticeably wandering closer and closer toward the castle in the distance. "So, I take it you want to go and see that ancient castle while you're here." Carlie blurted out. Lydia slightly blushed as she was found out so easily, "I was kind of hoping to search the library for anything regarding this 'Sleeper' business." She said bashfully. Worried, Beetlejuice asked, "So why were you hiding it from us instead of just telling us like you usually do?" Startled, Lydia began stammering her words trying to think of an excuse. "Excuse me." Bertha suddenly asked and cut in front of the group to quickly slug Lydia in the left cheek with her right fist. Surprisingly, Bertha slugged Lydia hard enough to send her sprawling to the ground around five feet from where she stood. Beetlejuice, braced for the pain but was surprised when it didn't come. "I don't like it when I'm lied to." Bertha said sternly. "And I especially don't like it when the bad-guy tries to imitate my friends… Grimnak!" With a grey mist covering the body for a split second, the fake Lydia shifted back into Grimnak. "Ow. You are stronger than you look." He said in pain as he rubbed his cheek. With the rest of the group still startled and in awe, Bertha demanded, "Where is Lydia?"

Lydia pounded on the glass sphere she and her two friends were encased in. Though her vision was blurred by the wavy glass of the magically made sphere, she recognized the dump behind the Road House. It happened so fast and was purposefully fitted to her invisible shield provided by the spider silk. Mysteriously, sand was kicked up and spiraled around them but could not reach them due to the shield. Suddenly white hot flames surrounded them and turned the sand into glass, trapping them. "How does he do that?" Lydia rhetorically asked in frustration. "Y'all, mean pop outta nowhere and ruin yer day?" Sierra asked with her own frustration lacing her words. "We're encased in a ball of glass around an entire foot and a half thick." Sophie sighed shyly. Thinking of a way out, Lydia sighed in her next thought. "It's too bad the spider silk doesn't protect me against damage I do to myself, or I'd be punching these walls until they shattered." "It wouldn't matter anyway, y'all run outta air before long." Sierra said finally giving into despair. "Then, y'all join us in the Neitherworld… trapped in this damn glass ball." Nervous about her true predicament, Lydia decided to reassure her friend about her theory, "Yah, join you…" She trailed off. Before Sierra could respond to her friend's uncertainty, they both heard the glass snap and crack behind them. They turned around to witness, a tiny drill made of water swirl around at incredible speeds and erode the glass away at a single point, almost nine tenths of the way through going outward. "You little genius!" Sierra praised the shy Atlantian. "I thought you had to dance to perform your water dance routines." Lydia asked confused. Quietly, Sierra informed her, "In order to control mass amounts of water, the dancing helps to direct where it needs to go, however a simple mouthful of water can be controlled with just concentration if the dancer is skilled enough." "Just two more minutes." Sierra smiled with her eyes closed, happy that her friends finally realized what she was doing. Just then, Lydia began to feel light headed and short winded, "Do you think you could make it sooner, I don't know if I have 'two minutes'."

An explosion rang out as Grimnak went back to old habits in using his compressed air bomb spell. Carlie and Prudence found a safe place to hide as Bertha used the Mirror Stone to summon one of her dragons she had memorized, namely her Diamond Aura Dragon. Beetlejuice morphed into various creatures to dodge the assaults while Claire unleashed the power of the Dragon's Ring aiming arrows of light and firing them at the nimble wizard. Merlin assisted by throwing his own lightning spells with the same result. Grimnak nimbly dodged and swayed out of harm's way. "This one's different from the others." Claire called out, noticing his enhanced movements and more powerful spell casting. He nimbly dodged everything they threw at him and even tossed in his own spells every now and then. Subtly he led them closer and closer to the castle and was even dominating the fight until he suddenly fell into dust and mist. Bewildered and baffled, the group of friends stood frozen in place eyes the size of golf balls and filled with confusion. Beetlejuice looked around frantically to find the last remains of a projection gate hidden just out of sight. "A doppelganger?" He asked himself aloud only to be answered by Bertha. "He must have broken his line of sight. But if that was a doppelganger…" "Then **where** is my brother?" Merlin finished.

Back at the ruins where the war took place the stone floor began to fall away, revealing a dark cavern under the lifeless soil. A dull laugh could be heard as a hand tried to reach up only to be repelled by an invisible force. "Hm, still not strong enough. Perhaps these games are more taxing than I thought. Oh, ho, ho, Arachnis. You thought you helped my brothers seal me in here forever, but everything diminishes with neglect and your prison will only hold for so much longer. I can wait."

Lydia began struggling for breath an the cracks in the thick glass began to spread the closer the water drill got to breaking the surface. "Although I know I should be weary." She began to chant with shallow breaths in between. "But still I venture someplace scary." She took some more deep breaths just as her vision began fading. At that moment, the drill broke through the glass allowing fresh air to rush in through the three quarter inch hole. Finding it now easier to breath slightly, Lydia collapsed in Sierra's arms, sucking in as much air as she could. Sophie then stood up and gently ran her webbed fingers across the cracks she had made in the glass dome. "This is probably going to hurt." She mumbled to herself and then began pushing on a cracked portion of the glass dome as hard as she could. Inevitably the weakened glass began to crack some more and within a few more minutes, broke away in various sized chunks. The higher ones cutting her up pretty badly on her head and arms. Amazingly though the blood that ran from her wounds looked more like a paste. Sophie collapsed to the bottom of the sphere in pain with gashes all over her arms and cuts all over the back of her head

Finally enough air rushed in to bring back Lydia's full consciousness and motor functions. She sat up to see her friend badly cut up from the glass. "Sophie!" she shrieked watching the dull pasty blood slowly run down the Atlantian girl's head, back and arms. Sierra stayed knelt down in pure shock simply witnessing the girl push out the broken glass and take the punishment of the chunks slashing her up and bruising her head and shoulders. Lydia moved as close as she could to the torn up Atlantian and wondered to herself, 'Why? Why didn't the shield protect her? Was it because I was about to suffocate? Why?' Tears began rolling down her cheek as Lydia raced to think of what to do to save her friend. "We need to find a hospital or something." Lydia blurted out as thoughts raced through her head in a panic.

Sierra gingerly picked up Sophie bridal-style and kicked out the remaining glass to step out of the sphere. She then ran toward the Road House with her own idea in mind. It was all Lydia could do to pick herself up and avoid cutting herself as she made her way out of the glass sphere. Memories of her mother's demise flooding her vision, causing her knees to wobble and her balance to wane. She gingerly stepped over large chunks of glass stained with Sophie's pasty dull blood. Fear and sorrow began to wrack her mind and Lydia began to attempt to hold the memories and emotions back placing her hands on her temples and screaming at the top of her lungs. Tears streamed down he face in a flash flood as her body instinctively curled up into a ball. She huddled near a pile of trash, hugging her knees and sobbing, attempting to make herself vanish from the cruelty she believed had befallen her.

It didn't take Sierra long to reach the Road House, gently set the in pain Sophie face down on the floor of the main office and dig through the desk for a flask she had kept in one of the drawers. As Sierra came over to her sliced up friend, she quickly opened up the flask and poured the liquid inside over the worst of her wounds. They began to close almost imediately as the clear liquid soaked into the cuts and gashes. She first took care of the larger, more threatening wounds and then treated the lesser wounds. As Sierra used the liquid to heal her, Sophie found the pain fade more and more until all she could feel was a nagging ache in her head and arms. Sophie soon began to slowly pick herself up to her knees with what little strength that had returned to her, hoping that the wounds had healed enough not to reopen. The lesser wounds, yes, but the largest wound on her back split slightly as if it now was but a tiny cut from a blade, however as that happened, the cut once again healed and in it's place, a large scar beginning from where her neck meets her skull, ending at the tip of her left shoulder blade. The pain stung her as she felt the skin scar over in an instant, causing tears of anguish to escape her eyes and roll down her cheeks.

Meanwhile, Beetlejuice and the others made their way to the castle to check and see why Grimnak wanted to lure them there so badly, Beetlejuice realizing that they could very well be walking into a virtual gauntlet of traps of some kind. They approached the gates of the once bright and beautiful castle, memories of their dealings with Naria's sand soldiers flooding their minds. Claire, Bertha and Prudence smiling at the victory they saw in this castle, Beetlejuice sternly gazing to the throne room with every memory of failure and frustration. They approached the courtyard leading to the interior of the castle, the flora withered and decayed, still despite all of the life returning to the rest of the Neitherworld. A dark shadow hung over the castle as if time itself refused to forget the darkness that ruled from inside it's walls. Before entering the castle at last, Carlie gazed over and noticed the destroyed tower at one end of the stone structure, most of which was still being repaired. "What on Earth happened here?" She gasped in awe. "That's where Naria's cauldron was located." Beetlejuice abruptly and sternly answered. "Maybe you should stay here." Carlie looked back at Beetlejuice as if she was insulted at the mere suggestion. "I am not leaving my daughter alone to simply keep myself out of danger." She answered. Before Beetlejuice could add to his earlier statement, Carlie interrupted, "And yes, we all realize they we could be walking into a trap set up by this 'Grimnak' and if I could talk my daughter out of going in, I would but I know how she is and we may just have to stick together to make it through this.". Beetlejuice looked back at the group of friends, each of them looking back with both determination and pride. Defeated, Beetlejuice hung his head and sighed, "Fine. Let's walk into a trap."

End of Season 2 Episode 13


	14. Episode 34: The Sleeping Dragon - Part 2

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 34: The Sleeping Dragon – Part 2**

Beetlejuce and Merlin lead the group closer to the castle gates. The closer they got, the more nervous they all became. The castle brick still darkened with the taint of evil brought by Naria gave no comfort to any who approached. The air hung thick with foul memories of murder and greed as they cautiously crept through the entryway. "Now if he had set up any traps, they would be magical enchantments that are triggered in a very specific way." Merlin stated, "We won't know exactly what until they are triggered, so be extremely careful and stay together."

A panicking and shivering Lydia cowered in her little nook of garbage. Huddled up to escape the cruel reality that another one of her close friends may have given up her existence for her, the memories of her mother's death flooding her mind coupled with the tragic loss of Aldar during the war against Naria, his sister. Her fear was shattered when a faint glow floated by and embraced her in a warm gentle hug. Lydia felt her stress and fear rapidly drain from her body, finally realizing that she also had been crying, a flood of tears never ceasing even when she had calmed down. "Hey kid. What do ya think you're doing, hiding in a corner?" Lydia heard a familiar male voice say. She then felt a gentle hand wipe away her tears as he spoke again, "Cowerin in a corner never did nobody no good." Lydia finally recognized the voice of someone she had met in Oregon a while back. He was a year older than her but he spoke with a kindness and optimism she wasn't used to.

As she blinked her eyes and wiped away her tears, smearing her dark mascara, the faint image of a police officer stood in front of her with a pale glow emanating from his body. She found herself unable to speak as he continued to lecture her. "I know yer scared. But when bad things happen and life knocks you down, what do you do?" She vaguely remembered those words from the day she was to move to New York. She remembered him meeting outside in the front lawn, her upset about the move and near to tears. It was that question he asked that got her thinking. "You stand back up and keep going." Lydia said aloud, realizing that nothing was there she looked around for the faint glow she thought she saw earlier. After a minute, she remembered Sophie and the terrible wounds she suffered breaking out of the glass sphere. Lydia ran in the direction she remembered Sierra dragging her and even found herself wishing for a miracle. The farther she left the area the more the person faded back into view with yet another angel beside him. "Wow." Elizabeth exclaimed to him. "You are far more subtle and cryptic than I could even hope to be." "This time she didn't need someone telling her what to do or how to live, but a gentle reminder of who she **can** be." James replied to her with a light, friendly smile.

The First trap set off a flaming image of a dragon that chased them through parts of the castle until Merlin placed a two foot thick wall of water between them and inevitably filled the floor with a thick blanket of steam impeding their vision and then setting off the next trap, a frozen wind threatened to end their lives until Bertha located a staircase to the next floor and used her voice to lead the rest of them to her. Cold and frightened, they all made their way up the stairs anticipating the next set of traps they would have to endure when Merlin decided to ignite a flame to warm up him and his friends when the flame began to grow on its own. He tossed the ball of flames back down the stairs as it detonated with a dull thud. "Looks like we're warming up on our own." He said sarcastically.

Lydia approached the Road House Main Office after checking about five other rooms quickly. Surprisingly, there were still a lot of vacant rooms considering that it was now known to be the original rebellion headquarters. However, Lydia did notice that most of the apartments were now lived in by taking a quick glance through windows as she passed by. She was just about to open the door of the Main Office when Sierra swung the door inward and they then found themselves silently staring at each other in shock for a short time. Lydia panting and out of breath she finally attempted to ask how Sophie was doing when Sophie stepped to Sierra's side, the same look of shock on her face. "Sophie?" Lydia panted, "How… You… I thought?" was all that she could manage to get out of her mouth. "Do y'all remember the water you created from that devil woman's cauldron and a little moonwisp?" Sierra asked as Sophie turned away from Lydia as if she were disappointed on her. Surprised, Lydia blurted out, "You still had some? I thought we used it all after the war." Sierra grinned triumphantly and responded, "Not all of it. I stashed some away in case of emergencies." "Yah, lucky me." Sophie responded dismally with a hint of aggression toward Lydia. Lydia looked as if she were defeated and almost broke down once again. She looked to the floor, yet another tear falling to the dirt at her feet. "I'm sorry, Sophie. You were almost erased form existence because Grimnak attacked me. I keep getting others caught up in my problems because I don't know if I can do it on my own. I understand if you're mad." Sierra responded to Lydia harshly, "Yah, I'm mad. But not for that." Lydia shot her head up in surprise, tears still welling up. "I'm mad because you stood there frozen. It was Sierra that acted to save me. You fought a war with everyone and never gave up because someone near you got hurt. You kept charging in. I'm mad because the girl I met back there never came back to visit. All I got was…" Sophie then gestured to the quivering Lydia, waving both hands as if presenting something. "**This** scared girl. What happened to that courage?" Lydia then felt an emotional sting in her chest that dropped her to her knees. Sierra knelt down to her friend and placed her webbed right hand on Lydia's left shoulder to comfort her.

The group finally reached the castle library and locked the door to block yet another flaming trap. "WHAT IS WITH THIS GUY AND FIRE?" Beetlejuice shouted in frustration. The rest of them were out of breath with Carlie wheezing out, "I guess this is where we humans go the lore of dragons breathing fire." Merlin had his hands placed on his knees to support the weight of his exhausted body. He then suddenly held up his right fist with only his index finger extended to gesture that he needed a minute to catch his breath, however he still had a retort for Carlie's statement. Inevitably he choked out, "Kind of."

Sierra carried Lydia toward one of the rooms of the Road House over her back. Lydia was so exhausted from emotions that she had fallen asleep and even now began to stir in her sleep. As Sierra laid Lydia down in the bed of apartment fourteen she and Sophie heard her mumble in agony, "No… Please…" She was sweating slightly and sounded frightened. "Please… Don't leave me… mom." Sophie's eyes widened as she slowly placed the nearly incoherent words together. Sierra solemnly looked to the young Atlantian and asked in a near whisper, "Rememberin yer own mother?" Sophie simply nodded in response. "Somethin y'all have in common." She then added under her breath, worried for both her friends now.

Beetlejuice and Merlin sat together in the library flipping through books while Carlie and Bertha sat flipping through others. Claire and Prudence unrolled as many scrolls as they could desperately trying to find information that could lead them to The Sleeper. At one point Prudence removed a rolled up scroll from a shelf and narrowly was crushed as the shelf collapsed on top of her. She unrolled the scroll in her hand to find an extremely old map of the Neitherworld. "The Neitherworld sure was different four thousand years ago." She innocently blurted out. Overhearing her, Bertha followed her tiny friend's voice and asked, "What did you just say?" Bertha jogged on up the Prudence and quickly gazed at the map taking note of the key differences, mainly on the land mass sizes. "The Neitherworld was **huge** then. What happened?" She gasped. Merlin and Beetlejuice joined them in gazing at the map soon. "That's easy." Beetlejuice began, "Every day the sandworms dig and eat away at the edges of the Neitherworld, making more and more of the land collapse into the sand pits and become a part of them." Carlie gasped in fright, "So in the distant future, the **entire** Neitherworld will fall into the sand pits?" "Unless we can bring the sand worms back to the Underworld where they belong." Merlin answered. "However with so many destroyed and dead, the process has been significantly reduced. In twenty years they'll chew through this area here." He was pointing the index finger of his right hand at a section of the map labeled in plain English known as the Caverns of Glass when an idea hit Beetlejuice in the back of the head. "What was that new prophecy again?" He asked. Merlin's eyes turned white once again as he recounted the prophecy again, "The dragon sleeps on the water's edge, upon the stone and light of which he beds. When the name is said and he begins to wake, the light of day he shan't forsake. Upon this day of familiar prize, look in at burnt sand in size. In daylight's conflict awake again, to reunite those close to him. Remember not until that day, when all of light will fade away.

A secret kept for ages past, shall awaken and cease the quarrel at last." As soon as he was finished, Beetlejuice pointed at the Caverns of Glass on the map. "Burnt **sand**." He enunciated. "Super-heated sand makes glass!" Prudence stated in realization. "So we need to go to the Caverns of Glass?" Carlie asked curiously. "It's our only lead right now." Claire said nervously. Suddenly, they heard the disembodied laughter of Grimnak in the air all around them. "Thanks for solving part of the riddle for me… and for giving me the prophecy in its entirety." His voice echoed through the room startling and putting the motley group of friends on edge.

And just as suddenly… "Wait, where did you come from?" The sound of rustling of books was soon heard as they all became now confused. "What are you doing?" More rustling of books and even the sound of someone bumping into a book case. "Don't… Arg!" And then a loud **thud** with another Grimnak doppelganger falling from behind a book case wrapped up in a spider's silk web. Suddenly a large spider with a crimson exoskeleton and short brown hair emerged from the shadows. "Ginger!" Claire shouted, greeting her friend. The spider noticed the blond girl and waved the front right leg at her as if it were an arm. "Hi everyone!" She called out in her New York accent. "The spider talks!" Carlie gasped slightly frightened of Ginger. Bertha patted her mother on her back to try and calm her down. "You don't have to worry about her, mom. She's a friend." Bertha stated and then turned to Ginger when her mom didn't calm down much. "Sorry, Ginger. My mom suffers from arachnophobia."

With Lydia still asleep, Sierra tended to the other occupants of the Road House. Sophie found what she could to repair the damage done to her dress. "If BJ were here, he could fix those tears jus by zippin 'em back up er somethin." Sierra exclaimed as she passed by looking for a pipe wrench. "Where is her guardian ghost anyway? It isn't like them to be apart in the Neitherworld." Sierra thought about her statement for a time and failed to come up with a proper explanation.

"Ahchoo!" Beetlejuice sneezed as he was flipping through a book. His sneeze echoed through the library once back at him. "You alright?" Claire asked after hearing the sneeze echo. She was only one row away from his location and was able to view him from a hole in the shelves. "Yah, I'm fine. Though, it looks as if Bertha's mom is still having a hard time." He responded. Even Claire could hear that Carlie was still nervous about having a giant spider walk around the library, talking to her daughter. The two caught up with one another discussing how their lives have been in their own opinions while Carlie bit her tongue as to not insult or anger the giant spider that appeared to be her daughter's good friend. She became more and more comfortable as she listened to them talk to each other. And almost found herself wanting to get to know Ginger herself. However, once she reminded herself of the fact that Ginger had eight legs and was in fact an arachnid, she stiffened up and froze again.

"Found it!" Prudence, exclaimed. They all soon gathered around the tiny intellectual as she began to read aloud. "The Caverns of Glass. A natural phenomenon within an unnatural world." Carlie lifted her eyebrow before listening intently, not realizing that Ginger had placed herself to Prudence's left and just in front of Claire's feet. "Created eons ago, when the societies of the Neitherworld fell into existence and all was simply chaos. The only remnant of those times and known to be a source of great wisdom for magic users. Little else is known about this ancient relic except that it known to become the final resting place for magic users that learn from its secrets, as if an ancient instinct drives them to give back what they had taken before." Claire whistled to indicate how impressive she had found that as Prudence turned the page to find an artistic painting of the caverns. It looked as if a swirling vortex of sand came in contact with an inferno and froze in its violent spiral. The opening gave the image of a never ending tunnel that could swallow up any foolish traveler that dare approach, while the tunnels themselves seemed to travel on forever, branching off into many paths in the image of a tree. After a quick count Carlie figured that there were more than three thousand different paths to take, each leading to three thousand different locations within the cavern. "So which path do we take to find this 'Sleeper'? Merlin tilted his head down in despair and simply uttered, "I wish I could remember."

End of Season 2 Episode 14


	15. Episode 35: Cause and Effect

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 35: Cause and Effect**

The whispers nearly drove her insane. A constant stream of voices whispering "They've done you wrong", "You should rule, not humans", among other temptations that made Lydia feel empowered and entitled. Earlier that morning, she awoke with a splitting headache and memories that weren't even her own came flowing though her head with such force it felt as if her mind was going to explode. Lydia began gripping her ears while she sat on her bed breathing heavily and panicking. Her day has pretty much been this, simply watching as the memories of another flash before her eyes like home movies. Hearing a constant stream of whispers as if there were a moderate sized group of people behind her. Delia and Charles convinced that it is just a mere flu by Lydia herself. Beetlejuice may not have been able to hear the voices or see the memories but he could feel her pain and knew how it was tearing her apart inside. She was sweating profusely and had been crying since ten o'clock in the morning. She had been sent home from school for those very flu symptoms before the voices began to whisper in her ears.

A moment of silence fell in his mind. Finally the voices were gone. Grimnak relaxed and enjoyed the lingering peace letting his thoughts drain and his mind clear from all of the stress. He felt his muscles loosen and his pains flee. He closed his eyes and drifted off into a deep slumber awaiting beautiful dreams to alleviate his weary mind.

More memories continued to haunt Lydia's mind, memories of a young dragon half, the youngest of three siblings. The three traveled side by side, two of them learning and teaching great things while he, the youngest brother, sat feeling useless, but interested in the teachings of his brothers none the less. He loved to learn. The more he knew, the happier he felt in his accomplishments. Smiling and laughing as he discovered new things of this place his brothers called "The Outerworld". Once he had found an old spear tip from an ancient tribe and had brought it to his brother to utilize his gift to see through time. The past, in particular. The brother placed his hand on the spear tip and began explaining the tip's origins. But simply stopped half way through, the sounds of his voice getting fainter and fainter as the seconds flew by.

Flames arose from nowhere as Lydia found herself standing in the middle of a village unable to control her actions, hearing in her head, "They must burn", "They know nothing of suffering", and "Since they invented war, they all should **live** it!" She caught herself laughing maniacally at the misery surrounding her and was shocked to her herself grunt out, "Who is the superior being now?"

"Lydia!" She heard a familiar Australian voice call to her. She turned around to see Ben, Claire, Prudence and Bertha standing there all with determined looks on their faces. "Stop this now!" Ben continued. "You've done too much damage to these people!" The whispers grew louder in her mind as they suddenly turned to speak differently. "So where were **they** when your mother died?" In her heart Lydia knew that her mother had died eight years ago and she had never even heard of these people she now calls "friends". However, the memories rushed back into her head as sadness almost immediately consumed her. She gripped the back of her head and shut her eyes tightly, screaming at the top of her lungs in grief, "Stop it! Stop talking! Leave me alone!" Tears streaming from her eyes like rivers of saltwater and pain as she huddled in her bed.

A pair of arms reached to embrace her only to be forced back by another pair of arms belonging to something else.

"Let this child go, you evil bitch." Elizabeth growled at the hands repelling her from Lydia. "And **who**, pray-tell, commands a demon of temptation to release her subject?" Elizabeth never answered, only keeping her determined gaze to the creature resembling a woman with crimson skin. The demon resembled Naria in a way. Besides the different colored skin, the demon beheld horns similar to her and similar eyes. The demon hissed similar to that of a snake as she loomed over a shaking and torn Lydia. Another difference to this demon is that she had on no clothes and she crept like that of an insect.

Elizabeth quickly swung her right arm across the demon's waist, which loomed just over Lydia's head, only to miss and witness as the demon vanished, dodging the strike completely. The demon, landed five feet from the right side of the bed, crouched low to the ground hissing and angry. "This girl's guardian angel, that's who." Elizabeth finally answered revealing a gleaming golden roman broadsword in her hand. She then opened her left hand to allow another sword exactly like the one in her right hand to slide down. She gripped the handle with great skill, never allowing the sword to touch ground. "This girl's deceased **mother** you mean." The demon hissed as she bore her fangs and claws to Elizabeth.

"All-the-more reason to protect her." Elizabeth shot back as the demon lunged at her. Elizabeth dodged left while swinging one of her swords, cutting the demon on the cheek. Furious, the demon screeched loudly and lunged again toward Elizabeth just as Delia and Charles opened the door, worried about the poor delirious Lydia. Charles stood by while Delia actually picked up the grief stricken Lydia who had now slipped into a restless state of unconsciousness and had absolutely no clue as to anything that was happening and simply fell limp as if she was in a coma in Delia's embrace.

The demon, grinned evilly with a twisted plan to enrage the remainder of the family, however while distracted, failed to notice Elizabeth darting in to deliver a forceful punch to the cut cheek, throwing the demon clear out of Lydia's window. The demon sprawled out and landed with a thud on the ground. With majestic wings spread outward, Elizabeth flung herself out of Lydia's window and into a glide to overtake the demon by air, until the demon revealed her own set of wings and flew up to meet her adversary in midflight. Another screech signaled that the demon was through playing around and decided to unveil her true power. Her already sharp canines lengthened while her claws grew and her humanoid legs reshaped themselves to be that more of a gargoyle, a claw on her ankle and elongated foot ending in clawed toes. A second set of wings sprouted near her hips as a long tail with a spear end rapidly grew from where her spine met her buttocks. The tail ended approximately three feet long and proved to be quite flexible as it whipped back and forth. A second set of horns then grew from the demon's forehead just outside her original set of horns.

She grinned with bloodlust turning her gaze back to Elizabeth. "Ah, I haven't felt like this in eons. Anything to say before I devour your flesh and soul?" Elizabeth said nothing, only fixed her gaze to her foe with a ferocious look of determination on her face. The demon's grin quickly shifted into a scowl of hatred and ferocity, "Oh, I'm going to enjoy dining on you. The flesh of a blessed soul will satisfy my new hunger for an entire year." "I think you'll find that I'll be far too tough of a catch." Elizabeth stated just before darting in to swing her left sword. The demon stayed in place until Elizabeth took her strike, moving only to extend her hand to catch the blade in mid-swing. Surprised, Elizabeth glanced at her sword as it stopped its journey. Her eyes turned back to the demon as it grinned back rearing to open its jaws and bite her neck. Elizabeth released the handle of her sword and jetted back just as the demon clasped her jaws shut. She then flapped her wings as hard as she could to gain as much height as possible only to be met with the demon in mere seconds. The demon raised the stolen sword and brought it down to strike at Elizabeth. She blocked the strike with her other sword as steel clashed against steel with such force that it sent her hurling down to the ground on her back. She struggled just a moment before feeling the creature's knee drive itself into the small of her spine. Her body held fast without breaking but still, pain and agony shot through Elizabeth as if it did snap in half. Elizabeth screamed aloud with tears welling up from the pain.

"What do living souls call this? Irony?" The demon asked as she lifted the sword she still had with the tip pointing down planning on driving it through Elizabeth's heart. She thrust the blade downward and for a split second felt as if victory was in her grasp until the sword was forcefully flung form her grip and landed harmlessly a foot away from Elizabeth's face with the blade sticking out of the grass. The demon turned to see where the assault had come from only to feel something rip through her thigh muscle. Blood and flesh flew in three different directions as the demon reared back and fell to her back in her own pain. Elizabeth placed her free hand on her sore back and slowly stood up in pain. She turned her head to see why her assailant hadn't finished her off only to see the demon writhing on the ground in pain, watching the destroyed thigh muscles and flesh crawl their way back to their host and reattach themselves.

As soon as the demon was finished repairing her wound, she turned over onto her hands and knees turning her burning gaze back to Elizabeth. "What trickery is this?" She shouted only to feel the same thing rip through her left shoulder. She fell to her face screaming in agony as Elizabeth looked in the direction of the attack. Off in the distance she could see a soldier dressed in white lying on his belly with a gleaming white sniper rifle. The soldier seemed to wave at Elizabeth as she recognized him. "That boy." Elizabeth sighed as she shook her head. She turned to look back at the demon only to find it had vanished while they were distracted, not even a piece of flesh had remained.

She could feel Lydia's fears and stress begin to subside. She took a breath and gently flapped her wings to levitate herself upward to the window, trying to ignore the throbbing pain with every flap. She reached the window as her pains subsided, her blessed soul having quick healing abilities, and saw Charles sitting at the foot of Lydia's bed with Delia drenched in tears from crying and Lydia finally resting peacefully in her bed. A gust of wind blew by Elizabeth and she nearly jumped out of her robe when a voice said gently to her, "You know you're not allowed reveal yourself to them." There, by her right side, was the sniper who saved her earlier, a friend Lydia bet before going off to the military. "I know James. No matter how much I want to." His face, still soft and gentle stood by her side for around a half of a minute before saying, "I can see why the two of us were assigned as guardian angels to her and not just you." Elizabeth turned to her partner quizzically as he finished his thought. "Something powerful wants her. Something evil." His face hardened with determination and focus. Elizabeth shifted her own expression to that of worry. "I don't know. But, all I can do is protect her."

Deep within the dark cavern, underneath the broken temple, a dark shadow sat in his dingy, aged, crystalline prison, thinking to himself and enjoying the silence. He could hear the sound of dripping water, rhythmically ringing from close by. A still breeze came from the top cooling down his skin and passing between his oily, dirty hair. He clenched a fist and released it only to clench it again, hearing his joints pop once as the muscles in his hand relaxed. He then proceeded to move his scrawny malnourished arms and legs, feeling as if rigor mortis was quickly subsiding. He slowly stood up breathing in slowly through the long shriveled nose on his aged and cracked face.

Suddenly, the demon skittered through as if a lizard crawling into a den, latching onto the walls and then to a large crystal in the center of the prison. "We must get her back", she whispered to the crystal. "We must destroy all of the angels and blessed souls in the outerworld." She stopped only realizing now that she was talking to an empty crystal and suddenly felt five sharp objects pierce the back of her neck, with a grip of intensity she had never felt before. "Welcome back, demon of temptation." The prisoner whispered in his dark dry voice. "Impossible. How are you free?" She asked in shock and panic. "With enough patience, anyone can escape a prison." He responded. Feeling her doom near, the demon began to try and use her persuasive abilities once again, "So, you still need me. I can fight by your side now instead of whispering in your ear, driving you crazy. You can finally regain your sanity." A nervous smile stretching across her face. "Sanity? Such a bright illusion for the weak of will. However, there is one more thing I require of you." Fear locked into her eyes, the demon asked, "And what is that, oh lord of dark magic?" "I haven't eaten anything in eons." He responded darkly as he pulled her back and bit into her right shoulder. Her screams echoed throughout the desert as the shriveled old man began devouring her.

End of Season 2 Episode 15


	16. Episode 36: The Bronze Lion

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 36: The Bronze Lion**

The pale malnourished old man stretched his limbs as he awoke the next morning, lying in a pool of blood and innards. He looked over his physique, scrawny bones covered in pale flesh. His wrinkled hands showed his true age and he even found himself without clothing. "Pathetic." He stated to himself in his new invigorated voice, no longer parched. "The world continues to tame its own chaos while I am stuck in here, stark naked, in this cold cavern of crystal." He closed his eyes and began to concentrate with no result. Only a small gust of wind blew by him. "Hmm," he thought aloud, "This aged form seems to take longer than it used to gathering energy for spells." He grunted aloud in exasperation and then extended his left hand so that he could point his palm in front of him. His projection gate opened up within minutes. "Damn, I was able to open the gates immediately while I was trapped inside that blasted crystal." He examined his old prison for a moment and concluded, "Perhaps it's because that it is solidified manna from my brothers." He then turned back to his gate and touched it physically for the first time in eons. The doppelganger was of his younger form, it turned back to look at its creator obediently. "Go and fetch me a soul to restore my youth with. Preferably an omni elemental soul." Grimnak commanded it and it left. He once again concentrated and within minutes the second gate appeared. He proceeded to create another doppelganger. "Go and fetch me some suitable clothing to wear for my return." The doppelganger turned around to look for anything it could find in the immediate vicinity and soon walked away to continue its search.

With a gigantic headache form all of the noise, Lydia watched from the stands of the school's football field next to her father. She had reluctantly agreed to watch Claire perform as captain of the cheer leading squad and was brutally reminded why she hated sporting events. She could barely stand listening to her father shout every time her school's team scored a touchdown or made a kick for an extra point, but she also had to listen to the entire school scream into her ears at the event and she could barely hear her own voice, let alone her thoughts. From what she could tell her school's team had twenty eight points to the rival school's thirty one points. She knew nothing of football other than that and was in too much of a haze to remember properly the rival school's name. She looked to the far end of the school only to be greeted by the blurry image of a far off bronze statue of a lion, standing proud atop an erect boulder. To its right front shoulder was a tree seen in the savannah that Lydia still wasn't able to identify off the top of her head. She turned her head to look past her father and noticed Ben sitting next to him with Bertha and Prudence sitting in the seats next to him, Prudence desperately attempting to see over the head of the person sitting in front of her by standing on the folding chair. Ben was cheering on his school's team with Charles and asking questions pertaining to the rules of this progressively savage sport.

Bertha yawned obviously not interested in football in the slightest and would rather be improving her Drakenfield deck or practicing the use of her Mirror Stone. Prudence on the other hand had finally given up on trying to see around the people in front of her and plopped back down in her chair and crossed her arms in a huff. Guiltily, Lydia gave a partially amused smile at tiny Prudence's attempts and failures. Suddenly, the crowd shouted once again, letting the noise ring in her ears for a while. She finally decided to go to the snack bar to see if that was quieter. "Dad!" she shouted. He turned his attention to her, noticing her cries to him. "I'm gonna go get something to drink." She continued over the screams of the fans, pointing to the snack stands to make sure he had enough pieces to put the message together. He gently smiled at her and asked, "Don't be too long." So that she could hear him. Suddenly, the crowd stood up and screamed at the top of their lungs at seemingly a game turning play. Charles turned back to Ben to ask what happened while Lydia slipped out and up the isles to the top. As she guessed, the top wasn't that much quieter but at least it wasn't killing her ear drums anymore. She looked back just in time to watch as one boy she thought who's name she recognized was tackled into what she remembered was called the in-zone to score an additional six points. Another boy she definitely recognized was standing just feet away from her cheering on what she thought was "Michael". "Yah! Nice interception Michael! You show 'em how you really play football!" José shouted over the railing. "José?" Lydia asked in slight shock as the crowd began to die down. José shot his head toward her and gave her a huge grin when he recognized her. "Sup there girlie?"

Lydia cautiously walked over to stand by his right side and lean over the railing with him. Despite the cheering crowd, an uncomfortable silence placed itself between them from their past. "What are you doing here?" he finally asked, breaking the awkward silence between them. Lydia shifted her gaze slightly to look at him through the corner of her eye and exhaled her nerves into the air before answering, "I promised Claire I'd come see her perform during the football game." Taken back slightly, José opened his eyes wide and stated in confirmation, "So you two **are** friends." All Lydia did was silently nod, distrust for him hanging thick around her. Her gaze wasn't even watching José anymore. She focused on Michael, the only one who thought to do the right thing and save her from Adrian when he attacked her and dislocated her shoulders. After a while of silence between them José decided to speak to her one more time. "I'm sorry about back there." Lydia turned in surprise to find him looking down at the railing in shame and disgust of himself. "We had no idea Adrian wanted to hurt you like that. We thought that we were just gonna mess with you a little is all." He paused for a few seconds before adding, "We don't expect forgiveness. We just want you to know that Michael and I are sorry."

Skeptical, Lydia asked him, "It took you **this **long to apologize to us?" Only to see his face tighten up and a tear run down his face. Feeling hurt herself, Lydia decided to look back at the field and watch Michael catch yet another pass and get plowed over by the opposing team. She cringed at the sight and thought of him being broken in half by three other guys but found herself relieved when he stood back up with the help of a teammate. She finally let out a deep, defeated sigh and said to him, "When I was little, my mother always would tell me to ease my pain by forgiving others who **cause** me pain as soon as possible." José turned to Lydia in surprise with tears still streaming down his face. "It may take a while longer, but I think I can do that." José wiped away his tears with the wrists of his hands and said, "Thanks. Your mom sounds pretty cool." Loss hit her again like a two-by-four and she thought once again back to that day while responding sadly, "She was." It was at this time, José noticed tears trailing down Lydia's face. He looked back at the field and muttered to himself just as the crowd cheered for the final score, "I did it again. Sorry girlie." His grip on the metal railing tightened as if his hands believed they could calm his sadness by wrenching the piece of metal bar from its resting place while he placed his weight upon his wrists.

"Is this guy giving you trouble?" They heard an Australian voice ask darkly. Both Lydia and José shot their gazes toward the stairs close by to see both Lydia's father and Ben standing there both with stern looks on their faces. "Easy there amigo." José asked while gesturing with his hands that he wanted to try to avoid a fight. "Not really." Lydia answered. "You guys don't need to worry. He was just apologizing for last year when I thought about mom." "Hey." José interrupted. She turned to notice that he was once again looking out toward the field. "I think it's half-time. The cheerleaders are coming out." They all turned just as the band began playing the traditional music and the cheerleader dancers began their routine. Sure enough, there was Claire Brewster keeping in synch with the music and performing her flips and jumps just as she had practiced relentlessly. Mid way in the routine, the squad formed their circles with Claire readying herself to be launched from the middle of the front row. She was launched high into the air and gracefully caught and brought back down to the ground. The music intensified as they continued dancing with vigorous focus and determination. At last the routine was over with four pyramids formed and Claire on the top of one of them. She breathed heavily from her dancing routine as she looked out to see her friends cheering her on. Bertha and Prudence were in the stands whistling and cheering while she found Lydia, Charles and Ben all applauding and cheering her on when she noticed José standing next to Lydia. Slightly confused she heard the command to break the pyramid and safely make her way down. She was gently placed on her feet and proceeded to happily make her way off of the field with her fellow cheerleaders when a loud roar came from the front of the school. Before she even had time to turn, what looked to be the bronze statue snatch up one of the cheerleaders in its jaws and skid to a stop before it violently bit down on her, snapping the poor young girl's back in half and tearing her flesh open. The girl screamed at the top of her lungs, feeling her legs and hips go numb and then feel nothing at all. "Oh-my-gosh! Alexia!" Another one of Claire's comrades yelled. Claire turned only to see pain and despair reflect in the girl's fading eyes.

Just at that moment, Bertha's diamond dragon crashed down and immediately reached down to pry the lion's mouth open while Claire heard Bertha shout over the panicking crowd, "Claire. Use an arrow to teleport her out of the statue's mouth." Bertha held the mirror stone out in the open, the polished sapphire emitting a faint blue glow. Claire snapped back out of her panic and looked back at the fight. She extended her arm, silently saying "good bye" to any normality she had left and extended her bow of golden light. She swiftly drew back an arrow and pictured her friend next to her side ready to receive medical attention. As she fired the arrow, the lion fought back thrashing its head and flinging the poor girl from its mouth. The arrow zinged by and dissipated soon after missing its intended target. Claire, quickly drew another arrow and imagined the same scenario. The arrow was loosed and it did as commanded when it struck Alexia.

The cheerleader, now teleported onto the grass lye gasping for breath as blood gushed from her torso. Claire readied yet one more arrow and pictured her comrade healthy and unharmed. She loosed the arrow only to have the energy bounce off of the girl's wounds and back into her face, temporarily blinding her. "Aah! I can't see!" Claire shouted as she stumbled around, covering her eyes in pain. Lydia looked in shock as her friend's own powers reflected back and blinded her. "This is bad!" Beetlejuice stated. He apparently had transformed back to his original form while no one was looking and dashed in to assist his friends. He had just placed himself in between Claire and the monster just in time to snatch her out of the way of the lion's paw as it swiped across, in an attempt to slay the blind girl. The two of them skidded across the ground with Beetlejuice regaining his footing mid slide. "Damn it!" he thought to himself watching the lion follow up with yet another paw swipe to attempt to slay both of them.

The lions paw instead found itself missing its target as the lion suddenly felt a sudden impact against its skull hard enough to daze it. José's fist drove the beast's head into the ground before he reoriented his feet underneath him and jumped off in the direction of Beetlejuice and landed within two feet of him. "Nice save, amigo." José said to him. Shocked and surprised Beetlejuice stuttered slightly, "th-th-that… was… bronze. Is your hand alright?" José brought up his fist and looked at it quizzically before stating, "Bronze? It felt like flesh and skull to me, man. What's your name anyway? And how did the blonde girlie do that 'arrow of light' thing?"

"Talk later! Fight now!" They heard Bertha shout to them. The two turned and saw Bertha still commanding her dragon to fend off the beast. Beetlejuice turned back and saw Claire rubbing her eyes which had only just now regained their sight. "Alexia?" she groaned waiting for her eyes to readjust to the light. Claire looked around for her friend eventually finding her still lying in the same spot, unmoving and covered in her own blood. Fearing the worst, Claire scrambled back up to her and found her eyes glazed over and lifeless. The image was terrifying to her as Lydia approached calling to her. Drops of rain began to steadily drop from the sky and the closer Lydia came to Claire, the more broken Claire became as distress overcame her emotions. Claire suddenly snagged the dragon's ring on her wrist and began to attempt to wrench it off of her wrist in an angry panic. "Damn it! Damn you little piece of shit! All of that power and you can't even save one girl!" Lydia stopped mid-step frightened of her friend's screaming. Claire now at this time had wrenched her wrist so violently she had caused herself to bleed just under the ring, and still she tried to rip the trinket off of her. From her blood, golden energy began to seep out like smoke drifting upward in a wavy motion, fusing six inches above her head and forming a dome. Finally noticing this, Lydia lunged in calling Claire's name only to be repelled by electricity that flung her ten feet away and rendered her unconscious. Rather than simply feeling the impact in his body, Beetlejuice was also flung back by an invisible force and dazed for a short time.

The energy finally came into Claire's view and she began to look around herself in a panic. She attempted to call out but was silenced when the energy sealed itself, fully encompassing her in a sphere made of golden light. Bertha, now left to battle the beast by herself gauged her scenario and muttered aloud, "Crap, I have to get rid of this thing fast. I'm the only one left to fight it." Just then little Prudence ran past the battle and up to José and Beetlejuice, who was just standing back up. "Guys, everyone's made it out and Merlin is rewriting their memories as we speak." "Wait. Who is what?" José asked, confused. "Never mind." Beetlejuice urged trying to keep from needless explanations. "Can you do that punch again?"

The air was still and cold. Claire thought that her lungs were going to freeze from the inside with every breath she took. Frightened and confused she attempted to open her eyes only to find more blackness awaiting her. Deafening silence surrounded her until a familiar voice spoke with both grace and authority. "Why do you mock me little gossip girl?" the dragon roared oat her as he once again slithered quickly around her. She once again found herself surrounded by the same space as when she first received the dragon's power. Shocked slightly at the sudden change, she began stammering with her words. "I… I… I…" was all that she could manage for some time, tears still streaming down her face from before. "Speak up, young one." The dragon roared lunging itself within feet from her face. That's when Clair broke down into tears and dropped to her knees, bawling with her hands covering her face. The dragon was now startled and confused. "Why?" Claire asked in between sobs. Taken back, the dragon lowered his head to the ground close enough for Claire to hug his cheek. At first, she was frightened, barely able to see through the tears. She gazed into the dragon's softened gaze seeing the reflection of her melted mascara streaming with her tears of remorse. Softly, the dragon spoke to her, "My apologies, little one. I had forgotten to mention that even my powers cannot reverse the flow of life." He paused for a second before finishing his statement, "Nothing can."

Back at the school, José and Beetlejuice worked in tandem to take down a giant bronze lion while avoiding the large golden sphere of light at the edge of the thirty-yard-line and the deceased cheerleader nearby. Prudence pulled a beat-up Bertha back over to the sideline benches the best she could. Apparently, the lion blind sighted and knocked out Bertha with a massive shoulder charge while defending itself against her Diamond Aura Dragon. As she came to, she felt her left side ache as if she had broken some ribs. She gripped her side as she cringed while sitting upright.

Watching Beetlejuice's movements, José kept the pressure up to drove the lion into a corner. Beetlejuice would charge in and dash in between the lion's legs, while José would be right behind to drive his fist into its skull once again. Suddenly, Beetlejuice shouted, "Alright, time to **hammer** this thing home!" In that instance, Beetlejuice morphed into a giant mallet and placed himself into José's hands. Still in the moment, José simply swung the black and white striped mallet as hard as he could into the lion's right side cheek, eventually tearing the head clean off. Yet, instead of blood, a black mist flowed from the lion's wounds as it collapsed to the ground. Beetlejuice morphed back into himself and screamed while rubbing his right shoulder, "Damn, that hurt! Holy crap, man you've got some swing!" José smiled slightly before the situation finally had sunk into his head. "Wait, hold on a minute." He panicked, "How did you **do** that, and what are you?" Slightly cocky Beetlejuice answered, Call me Beetlejuice, the ghost with the most." Moving from realization to sheer terror, José replied, "Oh well now that makes seh… wha! You're a **ghost**?" Then, stammering over his words, he began to faint where he stood. The moment he collapsed to the ground Beetlejuice moved in and caught him. "Guess not everyone handles ghosts like the others do." He muttered to himself, dragging the now passed out José over to the side lines. As soon as he set the boy down he looked over to the glowing sphere and asked himself aloud, "Now… what to do with **this** thing?"

End of Season 2 Episode 16


	17. Episode 37: The Sword of a King

Beetlejuice

**Season 2: The Sleeper Saga**

**Episode 37: The Sword of a King**

For a time, Claire kept her face buried in the dragon's cheek hairs. She found them surprisingly soft, more like clouds than long hair. As soon as Claire was finished crying, she wiped away her tears, smearing all that was left of her makeup. She sat back on her heels and looked back into the dragon's ruby colored eye, seeing that he had actually become bored and was about to drift off into sleep. "Thanks." She said softly to him. His eye flared back to alertness as he slowly lifted his head and yawned. "You've been in here for quite some time little one." The dragon finally noticed. With her own realization, Claire frantically looked around, noticing herself in the same black space from when she first received her powers from the dragon. Suddenly, her wrist ached with pain and as she brought it up to see why, she realized that her wrist was bleeding even inside this space in her mind, her hand now streaked with her own blood. As she gazed at her injury, she noticed a tiny crack in the dragon's ring form where she had violently wrenched it to attempt forceful removal.

Noticing it as well, the dragon asked in wonder, "How did you come to do this?" startling Claire and causing her to jerk her hand down as she quickly spun around to face him, the twinge of pan coursed through her arm as she accidently slapped her wrist against her leg. "I think I've really messed my wrist up." She cringed in pain. "Why don't you try healing yourself with an arrow?" The dragon suggested. "How do I do that? Launch it in the air and wait for it to come back down?" Claire asked sarcastically. "If the arrow flies only for a short distance, it will strike the target beneath it." The dragon answered seriously. Stunned by his words, Claire finally decided to give it a try just to show how silly of an idea it was. She concentrated on healing her wrist and began to draw back the bow, only when she drew it back, her wrist began feeling like it was about to burst into flames and noticed that instead of the energy coming strictly from the edges of the ring, it burst forth form her wound, carrying with it, drops of her blood as well. Claire released the bow and cried out in pain, dropping to her knees and gripping her wrist with her hand. "I didn't see **that** coming." The dragon stated in slight shock. "What? What's happening to me?" Claire asked in a panic, tears of pain flowing from her eyes. "I do not know little one." He stated, smashing her hopes into dust. "The only one who might know anything of this might be the creator of the ring, Arachnis Widow."

Outside, the gang had already sent everyone except José back to their homes with memories rewritten. José reluctantly let them send Michael back to his home and then joined his new comrades back at the glowing sphere. "So, what exactly is this thing, amigos?" he asked aloud to the group. It was Merlin who answered him, "Claire Brewster wears an ancient artifact from beyond the medieval ages known as the 'Dragon's Ring'. Its power is unfathomable and even created the first dragon from a man's rage." Shocked, José looked to Lydia with his next question. "So, what was the blonde girlie doing with this thing? She looked like she was firing arrows made of gold. And why did one of them ricochet and hit her?" Lydia barely heard him, she was simply staring at the dead cheerleader, her wounds in similar places as her deceased mother. Lydia suddenly felt her body grow stiff and the memories began flashing back to the forefront of her mind, causing her to grasp her temples and scream as loud as she could while crouching down so that her knees met her chin. Tears once again began to flow from her eyes uncontrollably, flowing down her face and dripping onto the grass below. The memories wouldn't go away like she had wanted, they only got more intense. So intense that once the memory replayed one more time and she literally felt the impact of the crash and fell unconscious, this time believing that she had died alongside her mother.

"Lydia!" Beetlejuice shouted as she collapsed to the ground. Everyone had then rushed to Lydia's aid only to find her eyes glazed over as if she had died. "She fell into a coma." Merlin observed. "How do you know?" José asked worriedly. "I'm more than a few thousand years old. Receiving a few doctorates, even as a wrinkled old crone, had eventually become a hobby." Was his response. Confused, Beetlejuice retorted, "But I thought you had never left the Neitherworld before." "Well, then I successfully had pulled the wool over your eyes, didn't I." He said back. As he did, he reached behind Beetlejuice's head and pulled over a wool pelt that had eventually covered his eyes. Beetlejuice responded by furiously pulling the wool obstruction back behind his head and growling, "Don't do that ever again." "That still doesn't change our situation." Bertha said to the two. Merlin and Beetlejuice looked back at the two mismatched friends as Prudence added, "As a matter of fact, it made it worse. Now we have two incapacitated friends and one dead cheerleader."

Blackness surrounded her. That was all Lydia could see. She knew that her eyes were open, she could tell from blinking them, but still, all she could see was inky blackness in all directions. Under her knees, she felt the rough carvings of a hollow tree. She slid her hand around until she felt a wall. The chamber was as she thought, a large hollow of a giant tree, no bigger than she was now. Soft clicking noises came from above her head, similar to the noise Ginger made when moving with her legs close together while on a web. But, "who was Ginger?" she couldn't remember. "Jacques might know." "Who was Jacques again?" She tried hard to remember any of the names she thought of eventually asking herself "Who is Beetlejuice?" Meanwhile the clicking noise above her head crept closer until a thin set of two claws gently touched her shoulder. Lydia almost jumped out of her skin and grabber at her heart, finally noticing that it wasn't beating. "Huh", she gasped. "What's going on? Why can't I feel my heart beat?" Suddenly, a cracked elderly female voice softly spoke, "You poor girl. Your journey has taken much from you hasn't it." Again, Lydia was startled. "Who are you?" she asked the voice, turning her head to what the believed to be the direction of the voice. "My name is as lost as yours is. But, you've had a recent tragedy, and I must ask you a favor, wearer of the spider silk."

"What kind of favor?" Lydia asked the voice. Three more clawed arms gently gripped her shoulders and biceps before the voice answered, "There is another object that is needed to end your struggle and bring back someone lost in time. A sword known to slay the undead, forged in dragon's fire." Through a crack in the wall, Lydia now began to see the light of what she thought was dawn peeking into the hollow. "Now return to your body and look for the blade of pearl. Only **that** can lead you to The Sleeper." The light then intensified and shone directly into Lydia's eyes, blinding her and causing her to raise her arms up to protect her sight. She suddenly heard a nasally voice of a girl standing next to her. "Lydia. Lydia, wake up." She shot her eyes open and found herself lying down on her back with four other people staring down at her from a short distance, as if they were leaning in while on their knees to try and get a closer look at her.

Her memory was still hazy and her head was splitting. She used her right arm and hand to push her body up to a sitting position while she placed her left palm on her forehead, as if to physically attempt to hold her head together before it bursts open. As she once again opened her eyes, she began to notice that the other four not only were familiar to her but were staring at her in what looked like shock. "What?" she asked, only to fail to hear her voice exit her mouth. She instinctively took her left hand from her forehead and placed it on her throat, realizing that she wasn't able to speak. 'But I was able to talk to the figure in the shadows. Why can't I talk now?' She wondered. Her mind began racing with many more questions as the man in the black and white striped business suit. Placed his hands on her cheeks and then placed his forehead against hers. This lasted only for a second before he relaxed and embraced her in a silent hug with his chin resting on her right shoulder. It felt silly since she couldn't remember his name, 'who is he?' she thought to herself as she began to blush lightly from his embrace. As he released his embrace, she noticed tears flowing down his face. 'Has he been crying… for me?'

Her gaze turned to notice the large golden sphere in the middle of the football field and the dead girl lying nearby. For some reason unknown to her, the sight of the corpse appalled her more than it should have and she began to dry heave. Flashes of a blurry image flew in front of her vision, blocking out her reality. Even though all she could make out were blurry shapes, she was certain that one of the shapes she almost recognized. The pale complexion and black drapes along the back of what could be the head. The shape was surrounded by other blurry shapes, making some kind of surrounding objects. The image felt cluttered to her but her focus never left the figure with the black hair. She was harshly pulled back with the man in the striped suit shaking her by her shoulders and shouting, "Snap out of it, Lyds." 'Lyds. Is that my name?' She asked herself with still a silent voice. Her thoughts never truly turning away from the image she had just seen, but still putting it far enough away in the back of her mind so that she could focus on more important questions. 'Who are you people?' she tried to ask with nothing but deafening silence escaping her lips. "Huh?" The man in the striped suit asked with a confused look to his face. The man in the black clothes seemed to have the look of shock on him as he explained, "She must have lost her voice from the trauma. But I think she just asked us who we were… amnesia?" "I've read about this." The pint-sized girl with the tulip looking haircut said. "Some people retreat back into their own minds to escape a traumatic event, taking their memories with them. At least that's what I understood from the passage anyway."

The rest of the group tried their best to fill in the gaps in Lydia's memory, retelling their story as friends from when they met to the recent events. In the meantime, Claire was now riding on the back of the dragon, roaming through the space in her mind. So far it was nothing but blackness, outstretched for miles. "We're lost aren't we?" Claire stated with a deep sigh. Defeated, she leaned forward and let her face rest in between the dragon's horns and allowed her arms to drape along the sides of his head, behind his ears. She sighed once again and asked allowed, "I wonder what the others are up to." In that instance, like a window in the darkness, she could see her friends sitting around telling Lydia how they met as friends. At first she was confused until she saw the blank stare Lydia was giving them. "What's going on with Lydia?" She asked again when suddenly the image before her flew in reverse time like rewinding a movie. It moved in reverse so fast she barely had time to recognize any of it until it stopped at the moment when Claire was surrounded in the golden sphere of energy. She watched as Lydia stared at the cheerleader's corpse and collapsed to her knees. She then fell over as Claire was shown a different image. Witnessing the strange events through feeling and sound rather than by sight. She felt the clawed hand rest on her shoulder, heard the dried up voice speak and felt her own mouth move as she heard Lydia's words escape.

The image then flashed back to her reality and the window closed in front of her eyes. "I think Lydia forgot everything." Claire stated. Before the dragon could respond they both heard the voice that had spoken to Lydia in the darkness. "A quest only for one with the powers of the dragon. As Lydia seeks out that which I had spoken to her, you must locate all that she had lost. But be warned, once you enter another's consciousness, you must be careful not to lose yourself." The voice echoed. After a moment of silence to shake off the confusion, Claire responded, "But what can I do? I broke the dragon's ring and can't use it anymore." Laughter could be heard echoing though the shadows for around five seconds. It then abruptly stopped and spoke once again, "The dragon's ring will heal along-side your wrist and your arrows will return. Just concentrate on achieving what I asked before Lydia loses what's most precious forever."


End file.
